We recently returned from Greenbook’s Insight Innovation Exchange in Amsterdam with heads buzzing and the customary ‘sum up the best bits in a blog’ on our to-do lists. However, a couple of weeks later, that (canal) boat has sailed – post-conference wrap-up posts have been done to death – and instead, what we’re actually scratching our heads about is ‘what next?’. So, here are our predictions for the hot topics that we’ll all be talking about in the coming year.
The overarching theme is turning outwards: technical revolutions, like the one we’re currently riding the wave of, always bring about a degree of navel-gazing. Over the past year, conference papers and webinars have focused heavily on AI applications, tools, and clever uses, sometimes neglecting the other topics. This kind of method obsession comes in waves, and we predict the next 12 months will see AI tools truly become table stakes (as predicted by Karen Lynch, of Greenbook), with less talk about method and even more focus on commercial impact and activation as well as on human roles and representation, in the form of HI + CI, skills gaps and how we don’t lose sight of real customers (particularly under-represented groups).
Commercial impact requires commercial acumen, but feedback from clients on ‘what insight buyers want’ consistently mentions a need for more commerciality. As we aim to bring more insight into the boardroom and be seen as trusted partners, AI is taking over some traditional researcher skills. We predict that “shaping researcher roles for 2030” will be a key focus. This will include discussions on evolving skill sets, increasing commercial impact, and attracting and retaining new talent, especially for qualitative research, where human interaction is becoming less direct in a field that traditionally attracted those who love talking to people.
A few years ago, we were all focused on storytelling; now, activation seems to be the next natural evolution. Storytelling is about telling a good and convincing insight-telling, but activation is about influence, a driving of action that goes beyond delivery of reports, dashboards, debriefs and vox pops. It helps client-side insight professionals actually affect change and influence their business partners. We predict that we’ll be talking about what audacious, creative, and disruptive activation looks like on a tight budget and with ever-pressured (and therefore distracted) stakeholders.
As we move away from fascination with AI methods per se, we predict a harder focus on data quality, AI ethics, and representation, particularly for minority groups and edge case points of view. As the results of AI-gathered studies take root, embed in decision-making and results show, we predict more reflection on erroneous outcomes, and where AI gave richer, more accurate and useful results vs. where it led us astray. As we pipe more synthetic data into our data lakes, how do we manage the risks associated with such data, to ensure – as Crispin Beale of ESOMAR has described – that we’re not polluting our data lakes with the data equivalent of microplastics? We know that ‘fast/System 1’ AI tools like LLMs– thanks to Josh Seltzer from inca | Nexxt Intelligence for teaching us that concept – are prone to hyper-focusing on the high-level, most-expressed, most general points of view, to the detriment of minority views and edge-case ideas. For an industry that values representation, and where ‘aha’ moments often come from subtle human moments and edge case perspectives, we predict the role of HI vs. AI to be a BIG talking point, with debates and consensus on guardrails, caution and how we should use technology to elevate under-represented perspectives.
There’s a certain cognitive dissonance to be felt at the moment, as customer closeness and empathy continue to be an important strategic goal and challenge for so many brands, whilst customer insight gathering is increasingly ‘at arm’s length’ due to increased automation, tech-led analysis, summarisation and so on. How do we stop those interactions and human-truths that we know can be so meaningful, resonant, and powerful (linking back to activation) slipping away from us, in the face of shrinking client-side resource, budget cuts and time-pressure for results? Video alone is not enough. While it can play a part, it lacks the human empathy of face-to-face interactions. After four years of video calls and remote working, who among us isn’t already screen-jaded? As with activation, we hope to see creative discussions on effective, cost-efficient, and deeply human methods of staying connected with the people who matter most – our customers.
We’ll be checking back in the next 6-12 months to see how accurate we were, but we would love to hear your thoughts in the meantime.
Sarah Askew, Innovation Director
Charlotte Moody, Managing Director
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