13/05/2026
One week on from London, one takeaway has really stayed with us:
The future of insights is not simply about doing research faster.
It is about helping organisations make better decisions with greater confidence.
Across the conversations in London, AI, automation and emerging research technologies were clearly high on the agenda. But the strongest message was not that technology will replace researchers. Instead, it was that these tools can raise the bar for what research teams are able to deliver. They can help save time, allowing that time to be reinvested where it matters most:
human interaction 👥 .
One particularly thought-provoking session from Annett Pecher at Emotional Logic compared AI interviewers with human interviewers. While the AI interviewer was able to follow structure and gather responses efficiently, the human interviewer uncovered deeper insights, asking the right follow-up questions, reading nuance and creating the kind of trust that allows people to open up.
💡 For us, it was a powerful reminder: technology can support the research process, but human connection still matters.
At Qual CIF Research, this felt especially relevant. Our work is built around real conversations, getting closer to customers, audiences and participants to understand not only what they think and do, but why it matters.
For us the value of research is not in producing more outputs. It is in creating clarity, bringing organisations closer to the audiences they serve and supporting decisions grounded in genuine human understanding.
Thank you again to everyone who shared ideas, challenged assumptions and made the conversations at Quirk’s London so valuable. We’re looking forward to continuing the conversation! 👋
