Customer insights has become a commodity, long live customer insights
The fact that synthetic data is about to reach parity on quality compared to market research (1) is telling me much more about the lack of quality of the customer work and research we’ve ended up with in 2024 than it tells me of the goodness of the AI-engines “faking” the data.
“AI customers can now deliver a 95% match to real survey results” — Mark Ritson (1)
This is not a critique of synthetic data!
Good on it for commodifying something so ripe for disruption (exceptionally high cost for a dull commodity product .. something needed to happen).
This should rather be a rallying cry! It should give rise to a new generation of customer insights.
Years of stagnation in formats, tools, critique and just plain void of vision and ambition has led what was supposed to be a premium product driving competitive advantage to become an over-prized commodity. It’s stiffness and lack of inventiveness made it offer itself up for disruption.
The synthetic data and AI-engines are now the benchmark (which means everyone should have it) delivering quantity at a speed which cannot be matched by a team of humans, so time for the humans to reinvent themselves!
Because the one thing the computer can’t fix is that as soon as it’s offered as an AI-agent, a tool or a piece of software. Is that it is essentially shelf-ware, a commodity for anyone to use.
Adoption and application will of course vary and offer advantages, there will probably be an industry of helpers applying synthetic solutions in the most creative and effective ways.
And it will be an improvement. The cost of research has led so many, too many to have none of it. Synthetic data will offer a “formerly” premium product to the masses. Opening up a mass market for customer insights (2).
The future
I believe the future is a combination of-course. That as synthetic leadership opens up a volume of opportunities for organizations something new will emerge on the innovation side of the curve. Something re-introducing the competitive advantage for the organizations who want it.
And it will be much better. Because organizations won’t be paying their behind off to ask the same questions as everyone else to the same people using the same formats and the same standards. They will be getting something unique to them giving them the edge, the vision and drive that they need.
This future will of-course include the mix between the computer and the human, but not to exchange the human with the computer, rather to level up to something completely different.
There was a spark back in 2016/17, kicking the industry to get better. But it failed to get traction. Not enough urgency, willingness to imagine or invest. But now as disruption is a reality we might see the willingness to follow the ideas that are half an inch more crazy than everything else (3).
Customer insights is entering it’s Apollo 13 moment, where both the application of synthetic data as a commodity and reinventing the competitive advantage will be key to creating the greatest success it’s had in decades.
Sources:
(1). Mark Ritson, Synthetic data is as good as real — next comes synthetic strategy, https://www.marketingweek.com/ritson-synthetic-data-strategy/
(2). Shoshana Zuboff on the Premium Puzzle, Creating value in the age of distributed capitalism, https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/creating-value-in-the-age-of-distributed-capitalism
(3). Helge Tennø, How to close the customer-data-gap, https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-close-the-customer-data-gap-defefe559f8b
