Blogpost by ICG member Wim Buedts, Independent Minds.
Your competitor just got the same insight.
Large research networks now deliver standard work with AI-driven tools. The output is predictable and comparable. Handy, until you realise your competitor is reading a report that looks quite a lot like yours.
It is a new kind of one-size-fits-all, nicely masked by fancy AI language, but
uniform at its core. And look-alike insights quietly flatten the field: they slow a
brand’s creativity and loosen its connection with the people it serves.
For now, speed and low prices are winning over quality and true relevance. With
this template research, clients are mostly pulling the wool over their own eyes. But
they are starting to see through it.
This is where boutique agencies come into their own. They have already made the
shift: speed and efficiency, without losing connection, humanity or drive. They give
AI the place that fits what it is. Not an autonomous super-intelligence, but an
assistant to human intelligence, there to support and strengthen it.
Because the moment your insight looks like everyone else’s, it stops being an
advantage.
#QualitativeResearch #ConsumerInsight #BoutiqueAgencies #HumanInsight #AI
