Benedict Kenney

Research Manager - Customer Insight

Marks and Spencer, Fashion, Home and Beauty

With 14 years’ experience in the research and insight industry, spanning agency and client-side, Benedict has worked within a number of sectors including Tech, Sport and most recently Fashion, Home, and Beauty, for M&S. He leads a variety of continuous and ad hoc projects across the different M&S business units, ensuring actionable insight is delivered when it’s needed, and that the customer is firmly at the heart of all decision making.

Sessions

Sep 24

12:10 PM - 12:30 PM EDT

Facing Tomorrow: M&S’s Journey with Humanoid Avatars

Why give AI a face? In a case study with M&S Fashion, Home & Beauty, we explore how to leverage a profound social shift where people disclose differently to ‘non-judgmental’ AI, via the deployment of Quasai, a first-to-market humanoid avatar moderator. We cover behavioural science, the importance of human oversight, and where this new research environment unlocks more inclusive, incisive insights.

Key Takeaways:

1. Avatar moderation is a new validated research environment, it doesn’t replace traditional methods

2. Behavioural science shows humanoid interfaces reduce social filtering for optimal research outcomes

3. Human researchers remain critical to ensure data quality, safety, and actionable insights

Also speaking

Pui-Tien Man

Head of Growth and Innovation, Simpson Carpenter

Speaker

Rhiannon Price

Senior Director, Simpson Carpenter

Speaker

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