This week, I had the enormous pleasure to attend the ESOMAR Congress in Berlin, together with Henrik Jakobson from our Swedish team and Sebastian Stahlhofen from our German office. In this short article, I will share some of my impressions from this conference.

The next three decades will be the most technologically disruptive era in human history. Advances in artificial intelligence, combined with radical breakthroughs in hardware, will usher in an era, in which devices fade away, virtual environments emerge, and super-smart AI assistants organize our lives and run our businesses. In this new world our relationship with technology will change forever.

These significant developments around the digital transformation are fueling consumer centricity and customer experience. For example, Danone developed a robot called Eva to create data-driven insights in the live mode. With the help of modern technology, retailers can know what shoppers want, and sometimes, as a speaker pointed out, even before these shoppers know it themselves. BBC presented a research framework that allowed them to understand the unconscious perception of their audiences and get deeper insights into the emotional impact of content. The work of Diageo even helps marketers to avoid stereotypes in their brand communication and represent all genders in a fair way.

Because, despite the fact that they make up half of the population and pose an attractive target group for companies, very often women are still victim to stereotypes. In fact, these stereotypes sometimes inhibit that brands develop deeper connections with their target audiences and serve them accordingly. In this regard, research data will contribute to a better society that puts the human into the center of everything.

We don’t have to be afraid of the digital transformation. Technology can help us to better serve our clients, to tackle prejudices and discrimination and, ultimately, to make this world a better place.