As we’ve discussed in our recent posts and, more notably, in the latest Forrester Wave, a new breed of AI-enabled consumer intelligence (AICI) platforms has emerged to meet the needs of today’s insights, marketing, and innovation pros. The catalyst? Brands need to know what consumers are saying online in order to make fast, consumer-centric decisions.
Yet, monitoring social data alone is not enough to capture the full picture of buyers (and citizens) and power strategic decision making. You need accurate, comprehensive, and actionable intelligence to keep pace with consumers.
So, what does it take to stay ahead of trends, market opportunities, and competitive landscapes?
- A next-gen consumer intelligence program. Unlike traditional social listening, AI-enabled consumer intelligence draws on a range of online and offline data sources, and cuts through these silos. Having a complete view is foundational. This means collecting data from not only external sources like social sites and news media, but also first party data from surveys, your CRM, and chatbot interactions. It also means assembling a team of inside and outside experts who know VOC, customer analytics, and insights programs – and the key metrics to track. And of course building the business case; and then with budget in hand, evaluating and selecting the right AICI platform to build around. These steps will be the subject of upcoming reports and guides from our team.
- Advanced analytics. Data collection and visualizations within your AICI platform are a good start, but to turn intelligence into action and ensure findings are accurate, you also need analytical frameworks. AI-powered algorithms can uncover relevant insights like changing consumer behavior, emerging trends, and target audiences. At Synthesio, we combine Ipsos’ expertise in data science and market research know-how with the power of our SaaS technology to not only supercharge your social listening, but also look beyond it to see what consumers are truly saying and doing – and how they are likely to behave in the future.
- Human-driven insight discovery. Humans are the third key to generating meaningful business outcomes from consumer intelligence. We need expert analysts to review and interpret insights and ask the right questions. Every domain or project has its own set of unique needs – think of what you need to discover when you are following big-picture market trends vs tracking brand health vs researching potential new products. Human teams put the right cultural and contextual lenses on consumer-generated data. They also help us to apply predictive models, along with local context and industry-specific expertise.
To compete in today’s market, brands must be able to make quick decisions using real-time consumer insights. It’s all about time to market! But it takes all three pieces of the puzzle for insights pros to drive real benefits from AI-enabled consumer intelligence.
To learn more about how Synthesio’s hybrid approach to AICI brings together the benefits of an AI-powered platform, data science chops, and market research expertise, you can schedule a session with our team by requesting a demo here.
