Consisting of ten co-authored articles, the report, 'Who Owns Understanding?', will be published on 2 July.

The MRS Delphi Group paired an agency author along with a client-side practitioner to give a nuanced perspective across a range of critical themes. Topics include: how the agency business model is changing; who owns insight and data in evolving client structures; and how the value proposition for research needs to be re-assessed.

Participating clients include Shell, Co-op, Sage, Unilever and Panasonic.

The MRS Delphi Group brings together individuals from the marketing and research sectors to produce reports, articles and podcasts, with the aim of exploring the trends and issues shaping the sector.

Chair of the group, Ipsos’ Colin Strong, writes in his introduction: “When outputs become abundant, fluent and cheap, the scarce value is understanding: knowing what to ask, what to trust, what is missing, what matters, and what should follow.”

This isn't, writes Strong, a practical how-to guide for using AI. Instead, the report asks the research sector: ‘What are we noticing and what are we worried about?’ and ‘What are we learning and what questions now need to be taken more seriously?'

Here, we preview the report, with excerpts from the articles featured.

1. AI agents don’t go to prison

“Market research will probably never send anyone to prison. But the decisions it informs increasingly shape outcomes that really matter financially, ethically and reputationally.  When decisions go wrong, the AI won't answer for them. The insight professionals who let ‘good enough’ pass for understanding will.”

Authors:  Eddie O’Brien, Sage and Dr. Ben Warner, Electric Twin

2. Why plausible AI demands stronger proof

“…as these tools become more sophisticated, a new tension is emerging. Outputs are growing more fluent, more coherent, more convincingly human, yet our instinctive trust in them is not keeping pace. In fact, the opposite is true. This is the verification paradox. As outputs become more convincing, their truth becomes harder to verify.”

Authors: Edith Bardin, Shell and Rose Tomlins, MTM

3. The future won't wait for us to catch up

“…expertise alone is not enough. The winners will be those who combine expertise, decision intelligence and the ability to drive organisational change at pace.”

 Authors: Alex Owens and Josephine Hansom

4. The human edge

“True capability evolution means we must intentionally design new ways to build human expertise. You cannot cross-examine an AI output if you do not deeply understand the data it is summarizing.”

 Authors: Adrian Sanger, DVJ Insights, and Sarah De Caux, Co-op

5. From AI capability to human choice

“AI creates an opportunity for the research sector to move closer to the territory traditionally occupied by consulting, but from a distinctive position, grounded in evidence, methodological rigour and expertise in understanding people.”

 Author: Dr Zsolt Kiss, o-x.ai

6. Why do we need research when we have got AI? 

“AI taps into cognitive ease, our brain’s preference for not having to think, amplified by authority and automation bias. In a discipline already tempted to prioritise outputs over outcomes, the risk is not just inefficiency, but intellectual passivity; researchers quietly “falling asleep at the wheel”.

 Authors: Jane Frost, MRS and Marie Robelin, Unilever

7. Who owns understanding?

“The future authority of the insight profession will not come from owning every tool, checking every output or blocking every experiment. It will come from defining the conditions under which evidence can be trusted, decisions can be justified and human reality remains in view.”

Authors: Ian Ralph, Walnut and Rose Tomlins, MTM

8. Retaining human centricity in the age of AI: why reality loops really matter

“It does seem as though AI is often positioned as both approach and answer. AI becomes the story, the star of the show; a celebrity presence that dwarfs the original strategic intent. AI becomes both the medium and the message. Reality loops are broken.”

Author: Dr Mark Thorpe, Truth Consulting

9. Efficiency or anxiety?

“Organisations with more agile management styles are better placed to absorb the transition, giving teams the space to adapt as the landscape settles. Where culture is slower to shift, uncertainty lingers and clarity takes longer to follow.”

Authors: Chrissie Tarbotton, Boxclever and Shane Hanson, Panasonic

• 'Who Owns Understanding?' will be published on Research Live and on mrs.org.uk on 2 July 2026. The report is sponsored by Verve Vero.
• The MRS AI-Powered Insights Conference takes place in London on 2 July.