MRSI Explores AI’s Role in Shaping the Future of Market Research
The Market Research Society of India (MRSI) held a webinar on 25th June 2025 on the topic ‘The Future is AI: Revolutionising Market Research for Tomorrow’s Insights.’ The session was hosted by Sunder Muthuraman; Independent Consultant, Marketing Measurement, with Krishnendu Dutta; Practice Lead – Innovation, Understanding & Client Advisory at Ipsos India, and Vara Prasad; Vice President – Head of Insights and Analytics at ITC Foods, as guest panelists. This session delved into how AI is redefining the future of market research, enabling deeper consumer understanding, faster insights, and smarter strategies across industries.
Vara Prasad began by outlining the structure of the session—covering the evolution of AI, its application in market research, real-world use cases, and key watchouts. He explained that traditional methods, often time-intensive and repetitive, are now being replaced by AI-driven tools that offer faster, more scalable, and context-rich insights. Showcasing real-world applications at ITC Foods, he discussed how AI is being used to mine consumer data from public sources, analyse customer care call sentiments, track emerging trends through social listening, and even develop product concepts in-house. With the integration of predictive dashboards, AI is also helping streamline performance tracking and business decision-making. He emphasized that AI’s true potential lies in how well it is fed with context; enabling it to move beyond basic testing and reporting to become a powerful engine for innovation and personalized solutions. Krishnendu Dutta highlighted the immense potential of AI in transforming market research, while also addressing the challenge of researchers feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of AI tools. To tackle this, Ipsos developed “Facto,” an internal sandbox platform encouraging researchers to experiment with AI in a safe, controlled environment. Facto enables daily use of AI for tasks like tranion, translation, insight extraction, top-line generation, and ideation – boosting efficiency and creativity across the board. Dutta explained how Ipsos is harnessing both analytical and generative AI, training powerful general models with domain-specific data to produce more relevant outputs across innovation testing, segmentation, and creative development. Notably, generative AI is being used to develop dynamic agentic personas, replacing static segmentation slides and allowing stakeholders to interact with these digital personas in natural language. He also introduced the application of synthetic data, used to augment small data sets, fill data gaps, and prolong the value of traditional research. Throughout his talk, he emphasized that while AI may automate some tasks, human expertise remains essential; especially in prompt engineering, model training, and strategic activation; positioning researchers not just as users, but as key enablers in the AI-powered future of insights.
The conversation delved into the evolution and types of AI, highlighting its transformative impact on market research. The panel discussed how AI-generated assets are reshaping the industry, moving beyond traditional testing and reporting to enable rapid innovation and development. Emphasizing the immense potential of AI when used effectively, the speakers agreed that the key lies in providing rich, contextual inputs; the more relevant the context, the more accurate and insightful the outcomes. The session underscored AI’s growing role as a powerful enabler in the future of market research.
To watch the recorded session, click here
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