Ipsos augments product testing with synthetic data – adds AI for faster product launches & richer insights

Ipsos, one of the world's leading market research and consulting companies is augmenting product testing capability with synthetic data, unlocking new opportunities in market research, leading to faster product launches and insights.

Anthony Dsouza, Head of Innovation at Ipsos India, explained the workings of the new offering by stating, "Artificial intelligence systems acquire intelligence through training data. If an AI has not been trained on pertinent real-world data related to your business, it will be incapable of producing synthetic data that retains the properties of authentic data. This principle is fundamental." 

"The evaluation process is equally straightforward. Synthetic numerical data should at least correspond to real-world data on key statistical measures such as means, data distributions, variances, and inter-variable relationships, including correlations. Conducting a direct comparison between synthetic and real data using these metrics facilitates an assessment of how accurately the synthetic data approximates the real data. The closer the synthetic data aligns with the real data, the lower the inherent risk involved; however, some risk always persists because synthetic data cannot flawlessly replicate every facet of real data. Consequently, synthetic data should be utilized only when one is prepared to accept a certain level of risk”.

Dsouza also challenged some common myths about the necessity of humans in certain processes. He explained that the product experience is deeply human, as AI can't replicate the five senses, emotions, expectations, or the context that humans naturally bring to their interactions with products. He emphasized that using synthetic data in product testing isn't meant to replace human input altogether, but rather to enhance it – by determining the minimum number of human respondents needed to work alongside synthetic data for reliable results.

Synthetic Data offering is now ready to take to clients. 

Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India, thrilled with the AI breakthrough for product testing with synthetic data, said, "We can accelerate product development with synthetic consumers, and it is revolutionizing industries from consumer goods, healthcare to financial services, automotive etc., enabling simulations and data augmentation, without compromising on rigor."

Some of the impactful outcomes enumerated of synthetic data included: speeding up product testing by upto 50%; gaining of 100% richer insights through exploration of subgroups; and cost saving of 20% to 60%." 

"Successful deployment of synthetic data hinges on the extent to which synthetic data mirrors real consumer data. With Ipsos’ thought leadership in product testing and the extensive on AI model training experience, we are confident to boost market research agility and reduce costs, through cutting edge research," added Adarkar.