Welcome to twir — the weekly show delivering AI-powered summaries of market research news and insights. Each week, we scan and ingest media from top blogs, podcasts, articles, and reports, distilling the key trends shaping the industry. Best of all, twir episodes learn and get smarter over time, building a POV on an archive of past news and trends.
Episode Summary: AI, Innovation, and Market Research Trends (March 7-14, 2025)
AI and Tech Innovations
- Ketch introduced a “Progressive Consent” solution designed to transform user data consent collection. The platform promises to improve engagement by embedding context-specific consent requests at relevant moments in the user journey, replacing traditional cookie banners.
- Relo Metrics enhanced its sponsorship analytics tools using NVIDIA’s AI technology, automating logo detection and delivering instant insights into sponsorship visibility and ROI across sports media. This accelerates AI-powered sponsorship measurement significantly.
- Stravito upgraded its GenAI-powered research assistant, adding Focus Mode, Snapshots, and multilingual support. These features improve focus, summarize key findings automatically, and support insights searches in over 100 languages, benefiting global research teams.
B2B Research & Insights Developments
- Peekator rolled out a new survey dashboard design, enhancing researchers' user experience significantly. The new dashboard features tailored visualizations for each question type, automatic sorting, intuitive color shading to highlight insights, and single-page navigation with dynamic filtering options—including AI-generated codes. Users can also generate AI-driven PowerPoint presentations complete with actionable insights, summaries, and conclusions directly from survey results.
- Attest released a platform update allowing brands to directly compare feedback from current customers against target prospects. This solution highlights differences in reactions, enabling marketers to optimize strategies more effectively.
- Fair Response, a new U.S.-based consumer research panel, launched aiming to improve online sample quality. Founded by industry veterans Matt Gershner and John Taliercio, the company intends to better compensate respondents and address persistent data-quality concerns.
- The U.S. Census Bureau began fieldwork for its inaugural Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES), consolidating seven separate surveys into one. Covering roughly 298,000 businesses, AIES will provide comprehensive annual data on business revenues, expenses, and assets to policymakers and analysts.
Funding & M&A Activity
- Omni, a business intelligence platform based in San Francisco, raised $69 million in Series B funding. The funds will help Omni expand its unified analytics tool, which combines structured data models with SQL flexibility.
- Silicon Data, a market intelligence provider focused on the semiconductor sector, raised $4.7 million in seed funding. The company simultaneously released new analytics tools, offering real-time market insights and performance benchmarks specifically for GPU hardware platforms.
- Sensor Tower acquired Video Game Insights, a UK-based gaming data provider, expanding Sensor Tower’s analytics coverage into PC and console gaming. The acquisition allows combined tracking across mobile, Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox ecosystems.
- Yottaa, a digital experience analytics firm, acquired SpeedSense, a Canadian provider of site speed monitoring solutions. The acquisition integrates SpeedSense’s proprietary Sensai technology into Yottaa’s e-commerce optimization platform.
- AI-driven knowledge startup Onyx secured $10 million in seed funding for its enterprise-focused research AI, capable of exploring company knowledge bases intuitively across platforms like Salesforce, SharePoint, GitHub, and Gong.
Partnerships & Collaborations
- dunnhumby partnered with ad-tech provider Osmos to enhance retail media solutions, integrating predictive AI targeting with in-store shopper behavior data. The partnership offers retailers accelerated, highly personalized ad programs.
- Datavault AI and NYIAX established a multi-year alliance creating a secure marketplace to monetize proprietary data assets. This collaboration allows businesses to list, price, and trade data transparently, leveraging blockchain and AI-powered pricing.
Leadership Changes
- Material (formerly LRW Group) appointed Laila Worrell as CEO, succeeding Bill Kanarick. Previously Material’s co-Chair, Worrell brings extensive digital consulting and private equity experience, aiming to accelerate growth through behavioral science and advanced analytics.
- Cadent + AdTheorent appointed Doug Rozen as President and Jeff Driskill as CFO. Rozen, former CEO at dentsu Media Americas, and Driskill, previously CFO at Analytic Partners, join to scale the firm's AI-powered advertising analytics solutions.
- ANA’s cross-media measurement initiative Aquila expanded its executive team, appointing Tina Daniels (President & COO), Jed Meyer (Chief Revenue Officer), and Josh Chasin (fractional Chief Research Officer). This team will advance Aquila’s privacy-compliant audience measurement solution for cross-media analytics.
Expert Insights & Thought Leadership
- AI in Market Research – Hype vs. Reality: Leonard “Lenny” Murphy discussed AI’s role in research, noting that while AI boosts efficiency and analysis significantly, it cannot fully replace human-led research. Murphy emphasizes maintaining human oversight to ensure context, ethics, and creativity in research insights.
- GreenBook’s “The Prompt” Video Series: GreenBook’s Susan Griffin and Lenny Murphy explored current market research trends and the growing impact of AI. The video emphasized how research firms should clearly articulate their human-driven value propositions alongside responsible AI adoption.
- Leveraging Google Trends for Insights: GreenBook published guidance by Ashley Shedlock on effectively using Google Trends data for market research, highlighting how analyzing consumer search behavior can identify emerging trends, uncover market opportunities, and inform strategic decisions.