Things are going to change in the next 18 years, that’s for sure. Imagining what will be different in the world of market research was the subject of David Smith’s presentation this morning on the final day of the Esomar Congress in Atlanta.

His session – and his thoughts on the future – were developed in conversation with Elisabetta Osta of Barclays Retail Bank in the UK.

Smith started off by introducing us to the fictional Katy who, in 2030, has just been awarded the prize of CEO of the Year at an unnamed industry bash. She is forward-looking, passionate about technology, loves change and empathises with customers. More importantly, she has changed the role of consumer insight within her company.

To find out how, we need to flashback to 2012. Katy meets Ted, her firm’s market research manager, who is looking sad at the Christmas party. Ted explains to Katy that in his recent big project there was no “classic survey” to go alongside the piles of data gathered from social media monitoring. To cheer him up, she talks him through her view on how the role of research should change.

Katy says researchers need to become “insight entrepreneurs” and “panorama analysts”, who can see the big picture through a wide angle lens. They need to use “data-rich thinking” and be experts in presenting their findings visually. By the time of the 2016 Esomar Congress, Katy has already caused a stir by opening the world’s first “multi-media customer experience room”.

Having worked with Watson, IBM’s supercomputer, Katy dedicates 2017 to building her own super-intelligent research robot, Ada, designed to have more of an emotional connection with consumers than Watson, which is handy because by 2028 the gaps between the “haves and have nots” has become bigger then ever. Brands need to be able to converse with both groups to survive, and the CEO needs to lead the efforts – with technology providing support.