Advertise on podcast: The Curiosity Current: A Market Research Podcast

Great research requires looking beyond what people say to understand why they behave the way they do. In this episode of The Curiosity Current, Kelli Rempel, Principal and Founder of Hana Worldwide, discusses why qualitative research remains valuable in an increasingly automated industry, how body language and hesitation reveal insights that data alone can miss, and why researchers should maintain a healthy skepticism toward AI. She also shares how she uses AI to manage the administrative side of her consultancy while keeping human judgment at the center of her research.

AI is changing market research across the board, but getting work done faster and cheaper doesn't always mean getting better insights. In this episode of The Curiosity Current, Alisa Hamilton, founder of Harvest Insights, discusses where AI adds value, why quality remains a challenge, and how researchers can use new tools without losing the human judgment that good research depends on. She also explores how AI is making advanced methodologies more accessible, why the next generation of researchers needs a broader set of skills, and why curiosity will continue to play a central role in understanding human behaviour.

Great research starts with the business question and lets the right methodology follow. In this episode of The Curiosity Current, Aksel Bedikyan, Founder and CEO of OhGee Insights, discusses why researchers should stay methodology-agnostic, how mixed methods can reveal insights hidden in conflicting data, and why existing data should be explored before new research is commissioned. He also shares how generative AI is changing the research process by taking on time-consuming analytical work and why curiosity, human judgment, and client relationships become even more important as automation improves.

What does it take to build a research function that leadership actually uses? In this episode of The Curiosity Current, Stephanie Vance and Molly Strawn-Carreño sit down with David Yin, a fractional research and marketing leader who has built insights functions at companies including Fitbit, Ancestry, Eventbrite, and Poshmark. David shares how researchers can build credibility from scratch, understand stakeholder problems, earn leadership buy-in, translate research data into business action, and turn consumer insights into competitive advantage.

For the longest time, market research has been focused on understanding why people behave the way they do. But what happens after the insight is delivered? In this episode of The Curiosity Current, Stephanie and Molly sit down with Will Leach, founder and CEO of Mindstate Group, to explore why researchers need to move beyond insights and recommendations and become behavioral designers who can help brands turn research into action. Will breaks down the say-do gap, explains why behavioral science and data analytics need to work together, and introduces the Mind State Activation Blueprint, a framework designed to translate behavioral research into practical creative and marketing guidance. He also shares how AI uncovered a cultural pattern across 19 different studies that he would have missed by looking at research one project at a time.

Data quality isn’t just about better fraud detection or securing individual surveys. In this episode of The Curiosity Current, Stephanie Vance and Jonathan sit down with Karine Pepin to explore what’s actually broken in the research ecosystem and why fixing one survey at a time can only go so far. Karine shares how researchers can establish their own “ground truth,” interpret conflicting fraud signals, question unrealistic sample claims, and rethink what’s possible when researching hard-to-reach audiences.

Turning research insights into action requires more than delivering good data. In this episode of The Curiosity Current, strategic foresight practitioner Mina McBride explores how researchers can build credibility, understand the political and emotional realities of their clients, and prepare stakeholders to act on uncomfortable insights. She also shares how foresight can help researchers distinguish meaningful signals from noise, take calculated career risks and stay focused on the work that matters most.

Researching products that do not yet exist requires looking beyond the technology itself. In this episode of The Curiosity Current, UX Research Leader and Product Strategy Advisor, Preeti Talwai, discusses how researchers can anchor early-stage work in enduring human needs, separate the experience from the technology enabling it, and measure impact even when a product never launches. She also shares why AI should augment rather than shortcut qualitative research and how teams can move faster by changing the way insights are delivered.

AI can accelerate research, but it can also make flawed conclusions sound convincing. In this episode, Sasha Mitts, an independent researcher, joins Stephanie Vance and Molly Strawn-Carreño to explore how researchers can use AI without surrendering their judgment. They discuss validating AI outputs, breaking analysis into smaller tasks, documenting assumptions, and preserving the human perspective behind meaningful research.

Retail media has become a powerful tool for brands to connect digital communication with physical purchases. In this episode, David Glaza, founder and CEO of Digits Agency, discusses the rapid rise of retail media networks and how first party data is removing the guesswork from advertising. David shares insights on the challenges of network fragmentation and why the best strategies prioritize relevant customer experiences over simple promotion.

Technology is changing the pace of research but the core of understanding people remains a human task. Tom Rich shares his perspective as a self-described carbon-based qualitative researcher. He explains why artificial intelligence serves as a sophisticated probability calculator rather than a source of wisdom. He also reveals how moral frameworks and techniques borrowed from the world of psychics help uncover what people truly value. Tom highlights why the journey of research matters more than just the end deliverable for brand strategy.

Andrew Embry of Eli Lilly explains how to innovate when the walls feel small. He shares how his team uses synthetic respondents to move faster and why regulatory boundaries actually fuel creativity. The importance of change management and the need for researchers to get in the mud with the business comes out through this conversation. Andrew highlights why human judgment remains the most valuable asset for insights professionals in a world of increasing automation and provides a framework for building trust and delivering tangible results.

Examine the tension between AI automation and the need for human closeness in consumer insights. Martin and Katie, Managing Partners at Basis Research, share why businesses return to custom models for strategic decisions and how brands can deal with a growing culture of consumer distrust. They address the potential gap in junior researcher development as technology absorbs entry-level tasks and why mentoring matters more than ever for the next generation of strategists.

Sarah Kling from Amazon explains how her team uses generative AI to scale global insights without losing the human touch. She highlights how she went from initial skepticism to using internal tools for massive data sets. The conversation covers the necessity of human rigor to prevent hallucinations and explains why the thinking cave is essential for quality. Sarah also details the evolving nature of consumer privacy and describes what the next phase of interlinked enterprise workflows might look like for the industry.

Data quality is often treated as a checkbox, but the impact of bad data reaches far across an organization. Insights teams must move from accepting claims to demanding proof. The hosts discuss the hidden costs of poor quality, including the erosion of stakeholder trust and slowed decision velocity. By explaining a framework centered on prevention and proof, they show how the industry can move toward a more disciplined approach where transparency becomes the primary buying criterion for research partners.