The partnership will embed Realeyes’ identity recognition software Verify into Kantar’s QubedAI antif-fraud softwarento validate that survey respondents are real people.

The combination of the two tools will help improve data quality across Kantar’s panels managed by its Profiles division as well as data collected from third-party panels, according to the firms.

As a result of the partnership, Kantar clients will get selective respondent validation pre-survey for Kantar Panels and third-party sources, third-party panel duplicate respondent protection for client research and reduced usage of IP de-duplication rules.

Other features include a QubedAI training tool for validating decisions, using age and gender verification capabilities, and account protection for Kantar-owned LifePoints and Qmee panellists.

Caroline Frankum, chief executive officer at Kantar’s Profiles division, said: “Panel fraud is becoming increasingly sophisticated. We constantly innovate to stay one step ahead of criminals and to ensure the integrity of our clients’ data.

“This unique and powerful collaboration extends our leadership in data quality and validates our position as an indispensable brand partner to the world’s biggest companies.”

Qi Wang, chief data scientist at Kantar’s Profiles division, added: “In November, we completed our proof-of-concept with exemplary results across scale, latency, accuracy and false positive rates. We were successful in identifying 96.2% of duplicate respondents, bots, and hacking with only a 0.67% false positive rate on duplicates across our owned panels, the Open Exchange, and third-party sources.

“QubedAI, like all AI models, requires constant training to stay relevant. We see the inclusion of facial recognition technology as an additional layer that could help ensure Qubed is trained based on accurate data and making the right decisions.”

Mihkel Jäätma, chief executive at Realeyes, said: “Our partnership with Kantar will eradicate the growing fraud and quality issues that are holding back the survey industry.

“Together we will set a new standard for survey quality, greatly improving the $1 trillion+ in business and marketing decisions organisations make annually.”