The insights and analytics function is at a turning point. AI is accelerating research workflows, consumer behaviour across Asia Pacific continues to fragment, and stakeholders expect more than reporting. They want clarity, conviction, and direction they can act on.

At IIEX APAC 2026, the plenary stage brings these pressures into focus. The sessions reflect how leading insights practitioners are responding to change, strengthening their influence, and redefining what effective insight leadership looks like in an AI-enabled, culturally complex region.

Across six plenary talks, three themes stand out: how humans and AI work together, why cultural intelligence drives growth in APAC, and how the craft of insights itself is evolving.

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1. The Human + AI Partnership: Redefining the Insights Function

AI is no longer experimental. It is embedded in research design, analysis, synthesis, and activation. As AI becomes standard practice across insights and analytics teams, the question shifts from adoption to differentiation. What separates teams that gain real value from those overwhelmed by tools?

These plenary sessions focus on the human capabilities that elevate AI from efficiency to impact.

Evolving Insights in the Age of AI

Isla Yu (Cathay Pacific) explores how insights teams evolve as AI reshapes how organizations work. Moving beyond traditional research and reporting, she reframes the insights function as a strategic partner that supports foresight, decision-making, and influence. Her session highlights the capabilities now required of insights professionals, including AI literacy, business fluency, and emotional intelligence.

This talk speaks directly to leaders rethinking team structures, skills development, and how insights add value in an AI-accelerated environment.

AI Doesn’t Have a Heart, We Do: Shaping Gen AI with Empathy

Rais Fiqriansyah (Dua Kelinci) challenges the idea that speed and automation alone lead to better insights. He introduces a four-step framework that deliberately inserts human accountability at key moments in the AI workflow. By structuring data with empathy and applying strategic judgment to outputs, he demonstrates how teams preserve meaning while benefiting from machine efficiency.

For insights and analytics teams experimenting with generative AI and automated qualitative analysis, this session offers a grounded, practical model for responsible adoption.

Together, these sessions reinforce a central truth: AI changes how insights are generated, but humans remain responsible for ensuring they are relevant, credible, and actionable.

 

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2. Cultural Intelligence for Growth Across Asia Pacific

Growth in Asia Pacific is shaped by more than scale. It is driven by cultural nuance, shifting aspirations, digital behaviours, and local context that varies dramatically from market to market. For insights teams, understanding culture is not a nice-to-have. It is a strategic requirement.

These plenary sessions examine how cultural intelligence enables brands to grow with relevance and credibility across APAC.

Building Brands in Emerging Markets: A Game of Scale

Shiyan Jayaweera (Hemas Consumer Brands) examines the forces shaping growth across South Asia, a region set to drive a growing share of global demand. He breaks down how aspiration, affordability, and social-first consumption patterns influence brand building at scale, particularly in mass consumer categories such as beauty and personal care.

This session offers insights teams a clearer lens on how to interpret aspiration, price sensitivity, and cultural context, and how to translate that understanding into sustainable growth strategies in emerging markets.

Coca-Cola Meets Thai Street Food Culture

Komkrib Chokchaikatanyu (Coca-Cola) illustrates what it takes to turn a global brand idea into something deeply local. Drawing on Thailand’s street food culture, he shows how global strategy and local insight intersect without compromising brand integrity.

For insights professionals supporting regional or global brands, this session demonstrates how cultural fluency, qualitative understanding, and creative collaboration help ideas land with authenticity and impact.

Together, these sessions highlight a reality many APAC insights teams already know: growth depends on the ability to interpret culture, not just measure behaviour.

 

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3. Reinventing the Insights Craft: From Proof to Provocation, From Claims to Behaviour

As AI accelerates analysis and dashboards proliferate, insights teams face a new challenge. When answers are easy to generate, value comes from interpretation, judgment, and the willingness to challenge assumptions.

These plenary sessions explore how the craft of insights is evolving to meet that challenge.

From Proof to Provocation: Reinventing Insights

Lara Truelove (Standard Chartered Bank) challenges the long-standing expectation that insights teams exist to provide certainty. In a world where AI produces proof quickly and at scale, she argues that certainty has become a commodity. The real value of insights now lies in provocation, in questioning assumptions and reframing problems in ways that change trajectories.

This session resonates with senior insights leaders working to elevate their teams from information providers to strategic partners.

Behavior and Ergonomics: Keys to Delighting Consumers

Albert So (P&G) focuses on one of the most reliable sources of insight: behaviour. He demonstrates how observing how consumers interact with products reveals truths that surveys alone often miss. By designing research and products around real behaviour, teams gain clearer direction and build more meaningful consumer experiences.

For insights teams investing in behavioural science, product testing, and experience-led research, this session offers practical guidance on capturing and applying behavioural signals.

Together, these sessions reflect a broader shift in the discipline. The future of insights lies not in producing more data, but in delivering sharper interpretation, behavioural truth, and the confidence to challenge.

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What This Means for Insights Leaders

Taken together, the IIEX APAC 2026 plenary sessions reflect where the insights function is headed. AI becomes a core capability, not a differentiator. Cultural intelligence becomes a source of competitive advantage. And insight leadership increasingly requires judgment, courage, and influence.

For insights and analytics professionals shaping their team strategies, capability roadmaps, and stakeholder relationships, these plenaries offer a clear view of what matters next.

IIEX APAC 2026 brings those conversations to the main stage.