Data Enablement Lab: What You Need to Know about AI Personas and Digital Twins in Market Research

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the landscape of market research—making it faster, more scalable, cost-effective, and less reliant on traditional consumer surveys that are burdensome to our customers. Imagine a future where research is not only on-demand and flexible, but also immersive and interactive—powered by synthetic personas and digital twins that mirror real consumer behavior.

But with great promise comes complexity. AI doesn’t always replicate human intuition, and its insights can diverge from traditional research findings. Understanding both the opportunities and limitations is essential.

Join us for a dynamic session exploring how leading researchers are leveraging AI to build virtual personas and digital twins that drive smarter, faster decisions. We’ll unpack:

• Key use cases for AI-generated personas and synthetic data in market research
• Real-world examples showcasing speed, scalability, and cost advantages
• Accuracy benchmarks: How AI compares to human research—and where bias may creep in
• Ethical guardrails for responsible AI use in consumer insights

Whether you're a data leader, data scientist, marketer or market researcher, this session will equip you with the knowledge to harness AI’s full potential—while avoiding its hidden traps.

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Welcome Remarks (11:00-11:10am ET)
Joan FitzGerald, Vice President, Data Excellence & Privacy, ANA

I. Uncovering Bias in GenAI Digital Twins: What It Means for Market Research

We’ve all heard that Generative AI can be “biased,” but what does that really mean—and how does it affect the insights you rely on for your brand? Many vendors promise high accuracy rates for GenAI-driven research, but are those claims valid? And how should accuracy be measured?
Join us for a deep dive into groundbreaking research from Columbia University, where experts compared responses from real consumers to those generated by their GenAI-created digital twins. The findings will challenge assumptions and reveal what these biases mean for virtual customer groups, simulated feedback, and other marketing applications.

In this session, you’ll learn:
• What biases exist in GenAI-generated digital twins compared to real human responses
• Why these biases matter—and how they could impact your brand
• How to measure the accuracy of research using digital twins
• The critical questions to ask when vendors claim “high accuracy”

Speaker:
Olivier Toubia, Glaubinger Professor of Business, Columbia University

II. Best Practices Using PersonaBots and Digital Twins to Transform the Brand Planning Cycle

Marketing is moving toward a world where insight and activation are part of a continuous, AI-powered loop, empowered by PersonaBots, which explore human motivations through dynamic, conversational consumer archetypes; and Digital Twins, which model individual-level behavior to test, simulate, and validate ideas with quantitative confidence. This session will explore how marketers are using personabots and digital twins in market research, and how they anchor a system where insight becomes always-on, and where marketers can move from idea to validation in the same workflow.

From this presentation, you’ll learn
• The role of personabots and digital twins in market research
• How personabots and digital twins support idea to validation in the brand planning cycle
• How to define quality and best practices when creating and using them
• The questions marketers and data leaders need to ask their vendors when contracting for and using personabots and digital twins

Speaker:
Caroline Hewett,SVP, Marketing & Brand Strategy, Ipsos

III.  Essential Strategies for Marketers and Data Leaders Using Digital AI Twins

Understanding and delighting consumers from day one is a motto shared between Prophet and consumr.ai. Our partnership paves the way to help bring to life (in a privacy compliant manner) how digital AI Twins can be used across verticals and countries to help brands learn more about their customers. Some of the use cases from product/service feedback, to creative feedback/creation to content ideas and LLM presence assitance are just the tip of the iceberg. More importantly, how can a brand engage with a customer cohort 24x7 without having to worry about a ton of bias or hallucinations!

Key-takeaways for marketers and data leaders:
• Genesis and importance of AI Twins - how are they created and how quickly can they add value?
• Synthetic vs human interactions - what data should they be trained on to not be invasive but deliver real human interactions & insights
• Use cases - verticals affected and countries where they are present in
• Future of market research - always on, quick and as accurate as humans (with minimum bias)

Speakers:
Chan Suh, Chief Digital Officer, and Senior Partner, Prophet
Aman Khanna, Co-founder, Consumr.ai