Returning from the MRS AI Powered Insights Conference 2026, one thought stayed with us.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence is transforming the research industry at extraordinary speed. Every month brings new tools, new methodologies and new possibilities that would have seemed almost unimaginable only a few years ago.

Throughout the conference, we saw compelling demonstrations of AI as a powerful accelerator for insight generation. Digital twins, synthetic respondents, AI-generated segmentation, qualitative research at scale, behavioural copilots, AI interviewers, agentic workflows and increasingly sophisticated insight platforms all promise to make research faster, broader and more deeply integrated into business decision-making.

The pace of innovation is genuinely impressive. Yet we left with the feeling that an equally important conversation is still receiving far less attention. Much of today’s debate focuses on AI as a tool for researchers. But perhaps the more strategic question is:

How is AI changing people, markets and the future of demand?

Beyond research efficiency

Artificial intelligence is not simply transforming how insights are produced. It is fundamentally changing the very people we are trying to understand.

Consumers are beginning to interact with AI throughout their daily lives. They increasingly use it to search for information, compare products, discover brands, make financial decisions, create content, learn new skills and even seek advice. AI is becoming an intermediary between individuals and the world around them.

As this happens, consumer behaviour itself evolves. Expectations change. Decision-making changes. Trust changes.

The role of expertise is being redefined. The balance between convenience and autonomy is shifting. New forms of creativity are emerging alongside new concerns about authenticity, transparency and human connection.

In other words, AI is becoming a social and cultural force, not simply a technological one.

The questions businesses should be asking

For organisations, these changes have profound implications.

How will AI reshape competitive dynamics across different categories?

Which consumer expectations will rapidly become the new normal?

Where will entirely new opportunities emerge and where might new inequalities or tensions appear?

How will brands build trust when recommendations are increasingly filtered or generated by AI?

What happens when purchasing decisions are influenced by intelligent assistants rather than traditional advertising or search engines?

These are not simply questions about technology. They are questions about people, markets and future growth.

Our perspective: from AI-powered research to Prompt Intelligence

At Eumetra, we believe the industry needs to look beyond AI as a research tool and explore AI as a transformative force shaping society, consumer behaviour and competitive dynamics.

While the debate on AI-enabled research methods is both necessary and valuable, we believe it should be complemented by an equally important conversation: understanding the new consumer mindset emerging in an AI-mediated world.

This is why we are expanding our focus from researching with AI to researching AI-mediated behaviour.

One of the most promising frontiers is what we call Prompt Intelligence.

As consumers increasingly turn to generative AI for advice, recommendations and decision support, prompts become much more than simple queries. They reveal emerging needs, natural language, purchase criteria, uncertainties and expectations at the earliest stages of the customer journey.

At the same time, AI is no longer simply reflecting consumer preferences, it is actively shaping them.

Our research on The Future of the Customer Journey Mediated by AI shows that consumers rarely mention specific brands when interacting with AI. Yet AI frequently introduces brands into the conversation, influencing consideration sets before people even reach a search engine, retailer or brand website. This represents a fundamental shift.

The competitive battleground is no longer limited to winning consumer awareness. Increasingly, brands also need to understand how they are represented, recommended and compared by AI.

For Insight and Consumer & Market Insight teams, this opens an entirely new source of intelligence.

By analysing thousands of genuine consumer prompts alongside AI-generated responses, we can uncover emerging needs, identify white spaces, understand evolving decision journeys and observe how AI is reshaping competition across categories.

Just as search behaviour transformed digital marketing over the past two decades, we believe prompt behaviour will become one of the richest new sources of consumer understanding.

Our ambition is therefore not only to understand what consumers buy, but also how they ask AI for advice, how AI responds, and how this interaction ultimately influences the brands they consider.

Because understanding the future consumer increasingly means understanding the conversations taking place between people and artificial intelligence.

→ Want to find out more?

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