“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”
This quote, widely attributed to Charles Darwin, is especially relevant to the insights community today. Insights practitioners have spent years building expertise in methodologies, data collection, and analysis. While these skills remain important, they are no longer sufficient to demonstrate value.
AI is already transforming insights and that was evident from the sheer number of AI focused exhibits and presentations over the three days in Denver. What matters now is how insights professionals will adapt to embrace the opportunities opened up by AI and evolve the function to deliver higher order strategic value.
Insights as Infrastructure
From episodic learning to connected, compounding intelligence,always-on learning and technologies like Model Context Protocol (MCP) are creating opportunities to connect knowledge across studies and sources. Rather than constantly starting from scratch, companies like GetWhy are demonstrating how we can build systems that continuously learn, while Merciv is showing how insights can become more accessible across the organization.
But greater access to information doesn’t always mean better decision making. This was particularly evident in the discussions around synthetic data. In “Decision-Ready or Not? How to Validate Synthetic Data,” Tracy Adams, Sr. Director, Research & Insights, The ARF, and Keith Smith, Managing Director, Marketing Science Institute, challenged us to consider: What is the purpose of the study? What are the stakes?
Synthetic models can’t exist in isolation and a compelling example was Grupo LaLa in the session, “Staying Human in the Age of AI: How Grupo Lala is Building Always on Consumer Understanding.” Lasse Telling, CCO, GetWhy, and Lalo Luna, Senior Director of Strategic Insights, Growth Analytics and Foresights, Grupo Lala, shared how they keep the model grounded in real people with a continuous flow of human learnings.
Discernment is The New Value
In her TMRE keynote, “How to Avoid Becoming Irrelevant,” Sol Rashidi, former Amazon executive and the world’s first Chief AI Officer, warned that generative AI risks becoming “generic AI” as the volume of information keeps growing. Extracting signal from noise is our job and that requires critical thinking, but like any muscle, it weakens if we don’t use it. She proposed that the most strategic thing we can do is to slow down, pause, and think.
Are We Becoming More Productive or Are We Just Producing More?
Productive isn’t the same as valuable. AI can make us feel productive, but idea generation isn’t enough. In the panel “Beyond the Data: Harnessing Human Intuition for Deeper Insights,” Renata Policicio, SVP Research, Streaming, Warner Bros Discovery; Lexie Franchak, Staff Market Research Manager, Intuit; Douglas Healy, Head of North America Insights, The Kraft Heinz Company; and James Cuthbertson, CRO, Relative Insight, emphasized that the real prize is the time it frees up so we can align with stakeholders, build relationships, and be strategic partners who inform business decisions.
Moving Up the Value Chain: Insights to Influence
The message I heard consistently throughout TMRE was that insights needs to move closer to the decisions that drive the business. That means thinking more like general managers, starting with the decision rather than the methodology. And this shift becomes even more important as AI takes on more of the traditional insights work.
Humans in The Lead, Not in The Loop
Which brings me to my biggest takeaway from TMRE. There’s been a lot of talk about keeping humans “in the loop” with AI. But to me, that’s too passive. We should be leading.
And leading means defining the questions, orchestrating the technology, applying judgment and guiding the decisions that follow. I heard a great saying recently, “use AI to raise the floor, and humans to raise the ceiling,” which beautifully captures the opportunity ahead of us all.
Editor’s Note: The next Insight to Impact Festival will be held November 2-4, 2027, at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN.
