Speaking in a keynote opening session, Beaver said that there was a perception in society of a ‘polycrisis’, where multiple issues are emerging at the same time, arguing that this sense of crisis is creating a “type of uncertainty that is feeding through not just to governments, not just to businesses, but to human beings and people in our society today”.

Beaver added: “There’s a real sense of optimism drain, and we see this when we ask questions like, ‘Do you think your children are going to have a better future than you have had?’

“We ask that question every year, and again, we’re seeing seismic drops. This level of uncertainty, this general sense of polycrisis, which is now a very overused word, through this restless decade period, is fuelling some of what we see as global trends.”

Strong leadership is needed in society, Beaver added, but with the additional issue of there being “significant trust challenges for our population that are not helping us to find that consensus in the moment where we would need it the most”.

She said: “How are we going to make sure that we as a community and an industry are adapting to take advantage, but also to help people understand what it means for their brand or indeed their government policy?”

Immigration, emigration and an ageing society were highlighted as key challenges, but Beaver said that it was increasingly important for the research industry to build engagement with the public to make sure it was able to accurately keep abreast of trends in the future.

“We’ve had a third percentage point drop in the response rate to the labour force survey over a period of 10 years,” Beaver said. “That is a significant challenge for our National Statistics Agency, but also of course our industry and it just shows the way in which we would be engaging people and encouraging them to be mobilised around things like research, that needs to change and evolve.

“In the time we get to 2030, those tools will definitely not fit the purpose.”

Beaver also warned about the risks of AI leading to “deskilling” across market research, and the importance of retaining the skills needed to adapt to an AI world.

“[Research] is becoming ever cheaper with AI, and it is becoming ever faster as well, but it does not mean the quality and integrity is expected to drop. We are going to have to become faster as an industry. We are going to have maintain the substance.”