Kantar is now using AI to interview humans about what they really think of brands, and the verdict isn’t comforting.
The data, insights, and consulting company has launched Kantar Converser, an AI-powered qualitative research platform designed to help marketers unpack the “why” behind consumer behaviour.
According to Kantar, the AI-led conversations are revealing today’s consumers are stressed, sceptical and increasingly unforgiving of brands that miss the mark.
Powered by an always-on AI moderator, Kantar Converser captures real-time, in-depth interviews and translates them into actionable insights, blending automation with human qualitative expertise.
“Consumers aren’t simply calculators chasing discounts,” said Carolyn Reid, head of qualitative at Kantar Australia. “They’re anxious, overloaded humans juggling work, money and uncertainty.”
That shift, she says, is fundamentally changing what people expect from brands. Consumers are gravitating toward familiarity, making trade-offs, and demanding both functional proof and emotional resonance before they buy in.
They’re also far less tolerant of tone-deaf messaging.
“People are defaulting to the familiar unless something new feels distinctively better, safer or more personal,” Reid said. “They’re unforgiving of messaging that ignores everyday lived stress. And they want proof—functional proof that something works, and emotional proof that a brand actually understands them.”
Kantar Converser is designed to help marketers respond to that reality, offering qualitative depth at a scale traditionally reserved for quantitative research. The platform enables brands to uncover motivations, tensions and emotional drivers, while capturing responses in consumers’ own words, preserving nuance, tone and cultural context.
The platform aims to:
- Reveal deeper motivations typically only surfaced in long-form qual
- Capture raw, unfiltered consumer language
- Accelerate insight generation dramatically
- Reduce the cost of qualitative research
- Reach participants anywhere, at any time
- Unlock more honest responses on sensitive topics
Kantar highlights the platform as “an evolution of qualitative research,” saying it’s not a replacement.
“This isn’t AI replacing qual. It’s qual, amplified,” Reid said. “AI can identify behavioural signals at speed, but it can’t explain what those signals mean for dignity, aspiration or everyday compromise.”
That gap – between signal and meaning – is where Kantar believes brands will either win or lose. As consumers become more complex and less predictable, the ability to interpret emotional and cultural context is becoming just as critical as the data itself.
Kantar Converser also integrates with Kantar Live, enabling brands to scale group discussions to quantitative levels, spanning everything from creative development to brand strategy.
