AI Innovations, Kantar's Future & Market Research Advocacy

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Episode 77 covers key developments shaping the market research industry, including the Insights Association’s advocacy against U.S. labor law changes that could misclassify market research respondents as gig workers, threatening compensation structures and respondent quality. It also examines Bain and WPP's potential divestment of Kantar, a move that could reshape the competitive landscape.

AI integration is another focus, highlighting innovations like Escalant’s behavioral science model and Estee Lauder’s Consumer IQ platform, which enhance data quality and streamline product development. The episode also explores the future of sensory testing with digital scent technology, set to revolutionize consumer research and product experiences.

Many thanks to our producer, Karley Dartouzos. 

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Transcript

Lenny Murphy: And there we go. Hi, Lenny. Hi, Karen. Hi, everybody. Happy Friday. Happy Friday.

Karen Lynch: Happy Friday. It's, I hope, going to be a somewhat celebratory weekend for those of us who are somewhat Irish. I say somewhat because I'm not Irish at all, but I have an Irish last name.

Lenny Murphy: Yep.

Karen Lynch: I'm sure the Murphys are getting excited. Are there shamrocks in your house?

Lenny Murphy: There are. We brought out the decorations this week. So I think we'll, my wife does a great, every year, kind of an Irish corned beef and cabbage and potatoes and all of that good stuff. So we're getting ready for that. I'm actually not a particular fan of corned beef or cabbage normally, but St. Patrick's Day. Absolutely.

Karen Lynch: We're more like the Irish beef stew kind of family because you know, I did not grow up with corned beef at all. So that was not, you know, I'm like, can't we make some sort of a green pasta? That is where spinach pasta works. Spinach pasta for most of my children's childhood. Cause I'm like, yes, it's sort of my way of mashing it up. So anyway, but we'll see. No, it's, it's, you know, all the thinking about it. And I think what's the saying, everybody's Irish on St. Patrick's day. So, anyway, I hope everybody has some fun plans.

Lenny Murphy: But those of us that are, authentically. I'm sorry.

Karen Lynch: Well, it's funny, because one of my sons in particular, really identifies with his Irish heritage. And I'm like, you understand that my family is Italian and French, and your father's family is like, yes, there's some Irish, thus the name Lynch. But there's also, I'm trying to think, all over the UK, I think there's some Scottish, I think I think there's Eastern European. I think there's some Polish. I think there's, you know, like who knows if there's just, you know.

Lenny Murphy: My paternal grandfather was Murphy. He was an Irish immigrant. So the, so we, we, we get it. It's, it's, it's strong.

Karen Lynch: It's like the, it's for some reason, like the, like the last name wins though in the family, like this, you know, this is one of those things that if your last name is Murphy, if your last name is Lynch, Irish tends to win.

Lenny Murphy: Absolutely. As we do. Anyway, Last thing, did you ever see that Simpsons, it was a Simpsons skit on the... I never watched the Simpsons.

Karen Lynch: So anything that starts with, did you ever catch that Simpsons skit? The answer's always going to be no. I would never watch the Simpsons.

Lenny Murphy: There was this really hilarious thing like a thousand years ago, whatever, you know, that the Irish were the peak of civilization, right? And then somebody invents whiskey, and it all comes down. And then we're running around in kilts. So yes, that's how I like to think about Irish heritage. But on that note, we should probably get into other stuff.

Karen Lynch: Yeah, let's just get into it, because there's no good segue from the downfall civilization of whiskey and to, yes. All right, but I do feel like we should start talking about what the Insights Association is currently kind of lobbying against, because I sat with this one for a while. The Insights Association is lobbying against labor law change here in the US, obviously. And I thought it was interesting when you really read it, because it's something that that organization does that I think I think people in our audience can get lost between one of the benefits of the Insights Association, which is this type of lobbying. And I think that they can get caught up in the different event content and different kinds of webinars and offerings and meetings and overlook this very, very crucial role that the Insights Association plays. So why don't you share a little bit more about this particular law or this law, this change, this potential that we're all at in the insights industry.

Lenny Murphy: Yeah. Well, well, first echo, this is what associations are for. Yeah. So right. Kind of primarily for advocacy and, uh, you know, Howard, who, who leads that, uh, has done a fabulous job over the years that this is a duplicate of the law. They were trying to push in California a couple of years ago, which basically tried to consider anybody who is, uh, gig workers, right. Kind of grouping. It didn't fly in California. It's not going to fly here either. My, my opinion, um, but I feel pretty confident in that opinion. However, it is one of those things that we do need to continue to be, uh, to differentiate within our industry. Um, and some of the, some of the privacy laws and some of those things, like we, we are different robo calling back in the day, right? There's been a lot of times that we were just kind of grouped into, uh, you know, a group of people. Larger issues, and we are different. So great, Howard, continue to fight the fight, because we can't afford, even though we don't think it's gonna happen, the reality is they need to be educated on why we are different. Policymakers, they're not in our industry, they don't think about this stuff. There needs to be an avenue for us to lobby, to say, nope, market research is different. The respondents are different.

Karen Lynch: This is not a- It's not an independent contractor income.

Lenny Murphy: Right. This isn't Uber, right? There may be people who, respondents who think of it that way.

Karen Lynch: Exactly. That's a whole other thing. That's a whole other thing. That's a whole other thing. But yes, like we don't want their income, we don't want the honorarians of incentives that we offer to be treated like, you know, salary or, you know, contractor payment. It's just, nope, we need to protect that. So anyway, so hats off to the Incentive Association for keeping up that fight, because it's an important one to be having.

Lenny Murphy: We should, and should mention one other thing on that, but like in some countries, like for, in Germany, I believe, for healthcare research with physicians, like they're not, they crack down and don't allow physicians to receive honorariums. For participating in research. I can kind of understand, especially, you know, you got a pharma company sponsoring it. I can see where that, where they got to, but that puts a huge challenge on engaging professionals in participating in research. So we do have to, it's great that we have this nuance to think about this because we don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot or allow ourselves to be shot in the foot by well-known but misguided policymakers. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah, cool.

Karen Lynch: Anyway, so I'm glad, I'm glad we're, we're talking about that. And, speaking of money, let's go right into the money because this story, this first story we're going to share is, you know, about Bain, Bain and WPP about to sell Kantar or at least sell off part of Kantar, break it up. Sell off, I think it's a world panel and, and then leave Cantar as sort of this, the, you know, the, the brand strategy consultancy. Um, I just think that's really interesting. And it popped up, it was like the first news story of this current cycle for us. And I'm like, well, there you go. So this has been for a while.

Lenny Murphy: It's been rumored for a while, but the Cantar was going to be sold for parts. And the reality is some parts already have been right. Cantar media, the HNG, et cetera. What I would say is that it's really interesting. They're leading with numerator and rural panels rolled up. There had been a rumor that they were going to be put together and sped off for an IPO. Now it appears that Bain and WPP as the major shareholders are saying, nope, we're just going to sell it. I suspect that they'll combine Kantar profiles with that personally. I know some of the conversations I've had with folks. That's that magic combination that makes sense. And that's a multi-billion dollar sale because of the data, because of the data. Take guys, pay attention to this. You don't hear them talking about the other aspects of Kantar as the tip of the spear and the real value creation from an investor standpoint. It is a numerator world panel. And again, I think that profiles would fit in there because they are data assets. The data assets are the value drivers, that's how they're going to get, you know, I think the number was 4 billion, something of that nature. For those businesses, that should tell you something, the other pieces that are left, it's just all the strategy consultancy, though, those will be bought, it'll be consolidation plays. You know, I would expect the usual suspects are looking at those, I know that the private equity groups looking at some of those, they won't be nearly the value of those data assets. And that should be very indicative about where the industry is.

Karen Lynch: Yeah, yeah, cool. A very cool point of view. If you know, it makes me want to bop down to the rep data, securing some funding, because I think so it's just kind of too down for Karley in our little list here. But rep data secured investment to enhance their, you know, research tech business from what is it Mountain Gate Mountain Gate Capital. And I think all of those investments signal confidence in where that's headed, so kind of building on that. Now, this one might be a little bit different in feel, because it's focused on fraud, but it just points to what you're saying about the money is related to the data right now. I don't mean to laugh to make light of it, but it's the connection I just made in my head.

Lenny Murphy: Yes, absolutely. Although we should probably point out, numerators and world panels are particularly valuable. It is because, I mean, numerators are seat scanning. The world panel is, you know, panelists that are sharing purchase data, et cetera, et cetera. So the fraud component is not as significant as in the traditional kind of just a broad sample. Repdata is tackling that bit of the issue. So, the quality component is driving both of these. The folks And how that data is used, garbage in, garbage out, right? We've been talking about it for years. The research data now fills AI training sets, yada, yada, yada. But if it's crap, then it's gonna be crap. So all of these things have a premium and are gaining traction because they are focused on ensuring that it is good quality data that feeds the traditional industry and the emerging kind of AI training set data. Yeah.

Karen Lynch: Yeah. Super interesting. Super interesting. So let's go to the, uh, to the other kind of, you know, acquisition that we have in this, in this list this week, because global data has acquired an AI palette. I haven't heard of AI, the AI palette. Yeah. Yeah. So, and there's something interesting that also, right. You don't have to be known to be acquired like in known, um, you know, effusively throughout the industry right now. So UK-based Global Data has acquired a Singapore headquartered AI palette, undisclosed some, we don't know for how much. So that's one of those interesting little details, but the AI palette has, you know, obviously AI, but machine learning capabilities go with the robust data infrastructure at Global Data. So here we go again, you know, like the money spot, the sweet spot really is data. Data, AI, mashed together to do great things in the world. So interesting, eh?

Lenny Murphy: Yep. Yep.

Lenny Murphy: Great examples of the trends that we have been pointing out for quite some time. And follow the money. Yes, we're seeing that play out now in real time as these plays start happening at kind of the financial level.

Karen Lynch: Yeah. Yeah. You know, a little sidebar in the wire exec out this morning, there was a conversation around data quality and AI and bots filling out surveys and so on and so forth. And what are some of the tools to fight that newly introduced fraud from increasingly higher quality AI? And so just, you know, we're noticing all of our use with AI getting better and better while the fraud gets stronger and stronger as it gets stronger as well. So the tools to fight them, to fight that fraud, kind of ensuring data quality and integrity, that conversation started to roll around there. And I did just want to take a pause before we get into some product launches, to point out that these topics are going to be handled in North America by some of our speakers. So I'm really excited about it, three sessions, and I'm super psyched. And I hope that we promote these on social media. Karley, I shared it with the team today. There's going to be Eleni and P&G are going to be playing an interactive kind of game show thing, bot or not. So I'm really excited about that one. Fighting tech-enabled fraud with tech-forward solutions, that's a Repdata one, so that's going to be great. Also, unmasking fraudsters. So, it's interesting to me that, yes, of course we're going to have AI on this agenda, both at North America and at Europe, and I encourage everybody to go, and I'm sure there's, yeah, Karley's sharing all the links, but also recognize that that conversation, which might have taken a bit of a pause last year, not a pause, it never went away, but it was a little quieter with the AI shouting last year. It's back front and center again. This is data quality, integrity, and fighting fraud. This is a big part of this year's conversation.

Lenny Murphy: Well, I don't think we have a link to it, and that's okay, but you know, the Baptist Health Association, they released a report this week around data quality, their data quality pillars they've been working on, right before SampleCon next week. Yeah. Yeah, so those conversations are happening where they need to be happening, kind of at the base of the pyramid, if you will, the foundational elements. So that's great. But they have so many implications to your point, you know, as we bring them kind of upstream into the broader discourse. So yeah, yeah, there was even a little screed our friend JD, JD Deitch put on LinkedIn. We don't have that link either. But if you get a chance, just go to his feed. It's a very active conversation that we need to keep paying attention to. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Yeah. Pretty cool.

Karen Lynch: So thanks for putting this up. I hope to see you all there. I, um, you know, I, I, you know, take a look at this code. If you're just listening and you're not looking at the stream exchange 30, we'll get you 30% off the general admin ticket. So thanks for sharing that Karley. Um, but yeah, really good stuff happening for both of these events. We're getting really excited for North America in particular, cause it's coming up now. We're just shy of six weeks. We're ticking down. It's going to be a great event. Registrations are popping, and we're really excited for it. So good stuff, good stuff at both places. Anyway, all right, so speaking of good stuff, let's talk about some of these product launches, shall we?

Lenny Murphy: We shall, we shall. You want me to, or you want to?

Karen Lynch: No, go ahead. I'll chime in, because I think it's interesting.

Lenny Murphy: But yeah, share what Escalante's up to. Announced the their AI powered behavioral science model So really interesting Because I hadn't really heard Descalant in the past focus on behavioral science I wonder how much of that is because their acquisition of C space and Holland partners and integrating that in into kind of getting a little more personal but the What struck me when I saw it was that is really smart because in the world of AI, right, that that's the who, what, when, where, and how, that's pretty easy to get from the data stream and AI lets us get there really easily. The why, the why, which is the part that really drives breakthrough innovation, insights, et cetera, that framework of behavioral science and the tools to help feed it is really important. And they were kind of striking, it appears, the balance of they've taken behavioral science knowledge and have created an AI tool so they get the speed and cost efficiencies of kind of that contextual framework to focus on driving next level insights on the why. I think increasingly we're going to see companies doing things like that, taking their IP that focuses on driving real impact outside just data, but into what it means and what to do with it, and just finding AI to accelerate the accessibility of it. Hats off to Escalant. I think it makes a lot of sense to do that.

Karen Lynch: Yeah. In this release that Karley shared about it, I think they're saying in 98% of the cases, the AI-generated insights align with experts' interpretation of the data as well. So they have their own built-in validation of what they're doing, which I think is great. I think we can all applaud that as well, because it's something that they are validating as they're building. I think that's important. We've been talking a lot about that. And they're talking about it as human-guided AI, which really is the sweet spot of what we Oh, that is what is happening. Like right now we are still guiding, for now, we are still guiding the AI and we're still factoring in our own thinking to the methods and the tools. So yeah, pretty sweet to see what they're doing. Yeah, absolutely.

Lenny Murphy: And then, I guess on the flip side of that, the InfoTools report or their space to think on paper, and they've been doing things like this for a while. So hats off to our friends at InfoTools. For tools as well, explore strategies to elevate the role of insights teams within organizations. So those two fit together, right? It'd be really easy to be AI-led insights teams where we're basically just pushing the button and getting the information and pushing it out. And some would argue that that has been a large part of the research industry, that kind of functional role for a long time. How do we elevate the role to focus on insights that move the business more strategically? And again, talking about this forever as well, the InfoTools paper kind of showcases some more of that. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's really cool.

Karen Lynch: And what it says in this, in this release also is that they've taken, they've taken and included some of the best advice from across there. Now that's a significant podcast. And I'm like, that's really neat. You'd know that they had AI assist for that. That.

Lenny Murphy: Oh, absolutely. They're condensing those, uh, uh, all of those transcripts.

Karen Lynch: I see what you've done there.

Lenny Murphy: Thank you for that. Thank you for the tip info tools. As you should, right? I mean, that, that, I think that's a wonderful example of how to utilize these tools, right? What's the difference between doing you know, you're sitting on a bunch of data as a brand and you want to synthesize the information insights out of your legacy. It contains data's content. Exactly. We should be leveraging that and try to drive insights. It's silly. It's a waste. Not so right. Yeah, that was great.

Karen Lynch: Yeah, pretty cool. Pretty cool. So yes, hats off more hats off to them. So let's talk about it. Yes, let's talk about. Let's talk about AI again, because here we are. But I thought this was really interesting. And I wanted to share this article about Estee Lauder using AI to streamline their R&D purposes, because it's another great example of a brand that is consolidating all of their data, and developing an AI agent to help their teams access it. So it's called Consumer IQ, it's their new AI platform, So it's got their whole, you know, their data hub, their knowledge management has been transformed into this, and then consumer IT. 80 years worth of consumer data. So it's surveys, clinical trials, promotions, product usage, that's a lot, right? So all of this stuff, and it's now accessible within their ecosystem for their teams to access. So, you know, there's details in here about how they, how they got to it. It started off, they were working with Microsoft for the AI Innovation Lab, and then now they're working with Copilot Studio. So, you know, they're working with big tech companies to do this, to get this done. But now these employees can identify trends, they can build marketing assets, they can inform their current research, they can get products to market faster, like good stuff in there being led by this brand side firm. And I just think, you know, yep, really cool. Now the agent part of it, this consumer IQ as an agent is what I'm most curious about and I sure wish I could get under the hood, right? Because it's more than just an LLM, that kind of modded gated LLM, it's more than that. It's like, what is that agent doing? Because we've been talking about agents and the importance of it, but my guess is it's doing so much more that they're not talking about because it's proprietary, but interesting stuff there.

Lenny Murphy: They're partnering with external suppliers as well. They mentioned Quilt AI. Which they have a relationship with that does analysis, trends analysis from all social data and video and all those things. I'm sure that there's other resource suppliers that are in there as well. So it's this wonderful use of all the historical data while also there's a constant new feed coming in as well. Yeah, pretty cool.

Karen Lynch: Imagine new data going in and the question for the agent or the prompt for the agent is take a look at this new data, compare it to data and then do a trend report specifically using this platform. Like all of that, the possibilities are endless with what it can do. And so just from a pure analysis standpoint, you've got to get excited about this stuff because it's so cool to think about. That stuff's not the geeks, right? I mean, this is cool stuff that you are, that these agents and these systems are allowing people to do, God, the possibilities are amazing.

Lenny Murphy: It is. Well, that's a segue. If you want to...

Karen Lynch: Yeah, that's...

Lenny Murphy: So, we'll talk about that. To which thing? No, the... The open AI and their new tools for AI agents. So, I think that's, you know, broad... Yeah, well, what...

Karen Lynch: That's all new.

Lenny Murphy: I haven't gotten to the agent stuff yet myself.

Karen Lynch: You know what? Oh, oh, and fun fact. So, Agent AI, which I really appreciate. They just shared that it's on Product Hub right now. And he had shared on LinkedIn, the founder of that, that came out of HubSpot. And it's now like number five on Product Hubs list right now. And so like super excited traction there. If you haven't, if you don't understand agents, go to Agent AI and you will start to see what the possibilities are in just your everyday life. Like you can, your everyday professional life. I'm sure there's plenty of agents for your personal life as well, but that's not my use case right now. But you know, you can go in there and and you can ask it to analyze your analyze your website um and then create you know so it's like just giving you don't have to give it all the steps it does it for you the agent basically is connecting all of these dots in what what end result do you want and and if I ask you this can you get me to that end result so I could say analyze my website and then write a social media post that's on brand for what you're analyzing so so you're able to connect all these data points through the use of an agent. It's very cool for some use cases. Anyway, open AI is introducing tools so people can build them more easily. Developers are out there doing this every day. There was one, oh gosh, there was another one that you shared also, right? That was, oh my gosh, that didn't make it onto the list I consolidated, but it was in there where you were saying like, is this particular agent now like the deep seek version of AI agents? Anyway, it's just cool stuff. Because there's just infinite possibilities for what these agents can do. Yep, and expanding every day.

Lenny Murphy: That's the agentic model is the buzz topic for, I mean, I think for the foreseeable future, right? Because to your point, it is the pragmatic application of this technology to perform tasks. Versus kind of the exploratory aspect where we've been the agents, right? Now, functionally, right, with writing prompts and all that good stuff, now they're gonna do those things for us in very prescribed ways.

Karen Lynch: And it's- So imagine this, let's take people on a little shortcut with us. So we have operations, right? This is gonna change operations in your organization. We have operations where, you know, Karley, who you all see, in the background here, she gives us the link, Lenny and I log on afterwards, she kind of downloads transcripts, and she creates social media posts about it, she gets it into the LinkedIn newsletter, like Karley's doing all this work, we're doing our thing. There is going to be a possible universe where we log in, and then the output of just our logging in, I'm not saying this definitively through this platform, but there's a possibility of a reality where we log in, and all of the things that Karley needs to do just happen because the platform knows that's what the end result we want will be. And that is so interesting, these savings. And then all Karley really needs to do is kind of supervise that along the way, make sure it's accurate. But she gets the end result she needs because we've gone into it knowing what the end is or what the end result that we want is. Even just having a conversation, you can plan ahead and say, what do I actually want this to achieve? It can achieve these things. That's my end result. I need to get that so we can socially share it. Cool, and it's already gonna know how to link to people. The agent's gonna say, oh, you mentioned, you know, A, B, C, and D. For example, it's gonna automatically start tagging JD if we mention his name in this conversation.

Lenny Murphy: It will just know what to do. Yep. Yep. Brave new world. And then, I guess on that note, the final, we kept saying- Please, there it is. I loved it. The most around any, you know, AI, VR, et cetera, et cetera, it's sensory. No, if you have to touch it, taste it, smell it, no, it can't be digitized. Oh, shit, I was wrong. Go ahead. We can teach machines how to smell.

Karen Lynch: Apparently, scientists have figured out a way to introduce a new sense, you know, sense of sight, sense of touch, but now we can give them a sense of smell as well.

Lenny Murphy: We can digitize scent. Sorry, I loved this. And not just smelling, but creating smells on the fly, combining the molecules, they call it scent teleportation, the digital transmission of smells. So think about that. I mean, you know, IFF, they'd spend a ton of research, you know, Estee Lauder, I mean, all these, you know, scents a huge part. Of every consumer product that we ingest. And so now we're able to do a sniff test at home through a digital teleportation of scent molecules via AI. You know how there was that period of time a few years ago where all of a sudden I became aware that hotels had signature scents?

Karen Lynch: This was like new information for me, that I'd walk into a hotel and I'd be like, oh, it smells so good here." And then I'd find out that IFF had created a signature scent for that hotel. I'm like, oh, that's cool. I didn't know why I was having a certain sensorial experience at a hotel. Anyway, so this concept of like, I want my house to smell like that hotel. I'm not saying I'd ever be able to do that. But you know, the idea that we could digitize that and then bring it home and use it elsewhere. That's kind of cool.

Lenny Murphy: And you're programming and paying for it, right? You're paying for the formula, access to the formula, you know? Yeah.

Karen Lynch: And that we could say to the machine, the example in this video that Karley just shared is on Pear, right? It's a pear scent, which is pretty light. But the idea is that it then, you know, it goes through this teleportation. It's so crazy to watch this video. It goes through the teleportation and it comes out, It has no color to it or anything like that. It is just, you know, but the scent has remained intact. If you just think about what that means, if you're in your house and you have a, maybe there's going to be a device someday that's like your own aromatherapy device in your house. And you're like, I need to dial up. You know what? It's spring. I want to dial up the lilac. And then it, no, I just say that out loud. And the next thing, you know, my house smells like lilac. Come on. Like what could be better?

Lenny Murphy: Yes, and this is, to be clear, this is not based on like, you know, essential oils or something of that nature, right? It is combining the molecules, analyzing, combining them at the molecular level in real time. Now, let's take that one step further, right? Before we end, right? As a Star Trek geek, the replicator in Star Trek where you just, you know, there weren't chefs in Star Trek. You pushed a button and it combined the molecules to create the meal, whatever it was you wanted, or the drink or whatever. This is a step towards that. If we are combining molecules to create scent, how much longer do you think it is before we are combining molecules to create flavor? And if we're creating flavor, then what about the substance that creates You know, we are heading into Star Trek future guys, because this is the beginning of the replicators from Star Trek. I'm telling you. And it happened sooner than I ever thought that it would.

Karen Lynch: I thought we'd get there eventually, but it's happening now. Yeah, it's very cool to live long and prosper.

Lenny Murphy: No.

Karen Lynch: Yeah, I love this. I think it's cool. And I think it's interesting. And, you know, you'd say, well, it won't be that soon. Did we think we'd be here where we are right now? No. So like, you know, how soon will this be? I mean, it certainly isn't going to be a household thing anytime soon, right? This is, these are, this is, this took place in a probably a very expensive laboratory that, you know, we're not at, we're not, we're not anywhere near the at-home use approved for at-home use of this sort of thing yet, right? But it is certainly a future option.

Lenny Murphy: I should point out, I became aware of this through an investment email, not from them through a fund that invests in a variety of companies. And this was the they're, you know, pulling together investments for this. So follow the money. Yeah. Follow the money.

Karen Lynch: That is so interesting. So interesting to think about. Because yeah, that's, you know, that there was somebody else that shared online today. And then I think we probably have to wrap, right? But there was somebody else that shared megatrends. It was just a, anyway, you know, kind of global megatrends, just this, I think I just saw it in my feed today. But anyway, and I was looking at those and I was thinking, you know, we have to really look at these. If we bring it back down to why these things matter, Lenny, we have to really look at these megatrends and these big things that are happening, these big advances in technology to think about what our future is at Insights Professionals. So as you started off saying, we thought sensory testing was going to be something that was safe. And you need the human beings to go in there. But there could be a time when sensory testing can be altered because of this mega trend of digitizing scent. So here are three different scents. We can ask the machines which one tastes closest to or smells closest to pear, for example, because it knows what pear smells like. This could change sensory testing. So that's kind of where So that's bringing it back into the, so what, why does this matter to us? This matters to us because it could really change the way we do the kind of work that we've always done.

Lenny Murphy: Absolutely. Good way to bring it all the way back home. So. I tried my best.

Karen Lynch: We can geek out a little bit, but I don't know that everybody goes there with us. So we have to keep it real, folks. I know.

Lenny Murphy: I'm just glad I got to slip in a Star Trek reference and even a Vulcan salute into the whole thing. So that's a first. I don't think I've gotten there. So thank you. It was appropriate.

Karen Lynch: Someday I will tell you about a Halloween party where my sister dressed up as, as, um, you know, the, the famous woman on Star Trek and, um, and we were followed by two people dressed as Klingons for the entire night. And I was like, and there I was like in my flat, in my like fringe dress with a feather in my hair and my like long fake cigarette being a flapper followed by these Klingons. And I just was like, please get away from me. You're like on the holodeck. I'm not here to pick up a Klingon. I can tell you that right now. For the record, I am more of a Star Trek guy. But I actually have a keen appreciation for the Star Wars guy. Sorry. But I have a keen appreciation for Star Trek for this very reason. Because it's just a lot more fun for, you know, I've had various types of things. Oh my gosh. Fun unless you want to be, you know, the cute little flapper in her closet. I want to be a part of that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, two things I want, I want a lightsaber and I want a replicator. Right. Uh, and, and a teleporter. I mean, between all those things, life would just be amazing. So anyway, we're all set friends. That's our show for today. Thank you for joining us. Always, always, always. We're so grateful you're here. Yes, absolutely. We'll see you next Friday. All right. Bye bye everybody. Happy weekend. Bye everybody.

Links from the episode:

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Bain and WPP to Sell Kantar Instead of IPO 

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GlobalData Acquires AI Palette for Consumer Insights 

Escalent Launches AI-Powered Behavioral Science Model 

Infotools Releases “Space to Think” Paper on Insights Teams 

Estée Lauder Uses AI to Streamline R&D 

OpenAI Introduces New Tools for AI Agents 

Osmo AI is Digitizing Scents