Artificial intelligence is fast becoming the next big thing in the retail world. In fact, analyst firm Forrester has recently predicted that AI will grow massively in 2017, with investment trebling this year alone and Gartner predicts that by 2020 85% of customer interactions will be managed by artificial intelligence. But what does this mean for the retail industry? Well, to put it simply, it’s game changing.

The development and advancement of AI will create numerous opportunities for retailers, transforming the industry from operations to marketing to store optimisation and allowing them to improve their processes, customer service and customer experience by empowering them to generate insights on a scale like never before. And the best part? It won’t even impact end-users. That’s right, the retail industry is set to be completely transformed behind the scenes but the processes are so seamless that end users and consumers won’t even realise anything is happening.

A US retail company, 32M, recently offered to microchip their employees. Yes, you read that right: microchipping people is the next big thing. According to 32M, there are a huge number of benefits that come with human microchipping, including enabling employees to log onto their computers, open doors and even purchase snacks from vending machines with just a swipe of their hand. But we were left wondering what this could possibly mean for the future.

What are the benefits and challenges of microchipping? And what could it mean for different industries? Could our lives really be transformed by inserting a chip the size of a grain of rice under our skin? And of course, what does this all mean for privacy and security issues? Read on to find out more…

What’s up in the world of consumer research? WhatsApp, that’s what! Over the past year we’ve seen a number of clients using WhatsApp to power their online qualitative research so here’s 5 reasons that you should consider integrating this mobile application into your next online qualitative research study.

Over the last few decades, scientists have been making greater and greater progress in unlocking the secrets of the brain. Understanding brain activity and how it relates to human behaviour is known as neuroscience, and marketing professionals are learning that this branch of scientific study can have enormous implications in the area of qualitative market research.