Kantar launches ConceptEvaluate AI, introducing AI into the innovation cycle

16 July 2024
Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company, today introduces ConceptEvaluate AI, the world’s first AI-driven, automated service for early-stage evaluation of product and service development. ConceptEvaluate AI allows businesses to screen new product and service concepts at scale, helping R&D and innovation teams move more efficiently and effectively from conception to reality when developing new innovations. 

When making multi-million-dollar investment decisions, marketing and business leaders need to trust that their decisions are informed by the most meaningful insights. ConceptEvaluate AI is differentiated by the superiority of the data it is trained on: a proprietary dataset comprising nearly 40,000 real life innovation tests and incorporating more than six million actual consumer product evaluations.  

AI model validation is a further differentiator. Developed using real-world inputs and known innovation outcomes, ConceptEvaluate AI is close to 90% accurate against past survey-based results when predicting outcomes for product and service trials, and how unique and relevant consumers find these concepts.  

Available immediately on Kantar Marketplace, ConceptEvaluate AI helps screen iterations of initial concepts, providing critical insights into which concepts are performing best before moving to in-depth testing. With the capability to simultaneously test 10-100 concepts in as little as 24 hours, ConceptEvaluate AI creates space for more innovative thinking, fast-tracks time-to-market and opens new growth avenues in a broad range of categories including FMCG, technology and financial services. As an automated tool with no consumer or survey panel interaction, it is also ideally positioned for testing sensitive concepts. 

Jenny Matsui, Director in Kantar’s Global Innovation product team: “Meaningfully different innovation is core to every company’s long-term success and innovators are under increasing pressure to deliver new products and services that resonate with consumers. ConceptEvaluate AI is all about helping ease this pressure, providing an AI-powered method to developing effective innovation that aligns with what consumers want and need. By accelerating the initial phase of the innovation process, we can provide robust early evidence that a concept has the potential for in-market success.” 

Ashok Kalidas, Kantar’s newly announced Chief AI Scientist, adds: “Not all AI tools are created equal. The combination of superior training data, a powerful model architecture and rigorous quantitative and qualitative validation of the AI model gives us confidence that we will add enormous value to clients seeking to innovate for growth. ConceptEvaluate AI gives brands the creative license to translate winning ideas into fully formed concepts, knowing there’s meaningful evidence to understand what will work best.” 

“Marketing leaders of all levels must become fluent in AI. Our experience as an indispensable partner to thousands of the world’s biggest brands means can help them understand how great quality data and AI tools can support their goal to become meaningfully different to more people. With this launch, Kantar now has a portfolio of AI-based solutions addressing every phase of the sales and marketing lifecycle, from brand strategy and innovation, through creative and media effectiveness through our LINK AI ad-testing platform, to shopper behaviour, customer experience and total marketing ROI.”   

Pricing starts at $5,500. More information on ConceptEvaluate AI is available here.