“Market research is a pain point,” said Boff. “It’s important, obviously, but the methodology, the time, the expense, the process is one that, in my own experience, is largely unchanged over the years.”

Market research is emerging as a hot application for AI, in addition to tweaking creative and enhancing chatbots, as others are also pushing into the space. Advertising agencies such as Pereira O’Dell, Supernatural and Media.Monks, for example, are experimenting with AI-generated focus groups to better understand their clients’ potential and current customers.

One concern that looms over AI-generated research, however, is its accuracy. How much is competitive advantage? How much is misleading hallucination?

“Synthetic research is a new technology, and there’s always skepticism toward new technology,” said Weinberg, who noted that AI is only getting more powerful and precise with time.

Fleming said that although he maintains a trust-but-verify mindset, he’s been happy with the results so far.

Upon first hearing Evidenza’s pitch, Toni Clayton-Hine, EY’s CMO of the Americas, said she felt a mixture of optimism, skepticism and wonder.

As a test, Clayton-Hine fielded EY’s annual brand survey—which asks executives at large companies to share their upcoming investment plans and thoughts on EY—through traditional channels. Without revealing the answers, she got Evidenza to run the same questions through its platform.

The two sets of results showed significant overlap.

“It was astounding that the matches were so similar,” said Clayton-Hine. “I mean, it was 95% correlation.”

Clayton-Hine now feels confident that AI-based research can help augment EY’s insights and strategy. Plus, she noted, while its annual brand survey can take six to eight weeks to complete, Evidenza turned it around in “a day or two.”