In the newly created role, Stevens (pictured) will focus on expanding the company’s strategic AI-based insight offer with key clients.

Stevens has a decade of insight consultancy experience across FMCG and healthcare and was formerly at FiftyFive5 and Human8.

Verve launched technology and services platform, Verve Vero, in 2024. Through the platform, the company offers its ‘Verve intelligent personas and simulations', which it abbreviates to VIPS.

Verve has also appointed Tana-Maria Botezat as associate director, Nicole Seow and Benjamin Huaraka as associate consultants, and Daniel Zhang as technical product manager.

Botezat, who was awarded Quirk’s Outstanding Young Researcher 2025, will accelerate the design of the agency’s intelligent personas and simulations solutions.

Seow, who has a background in language patterns, model behaviour and cultural intelligence, will focus on strengthening the context engineering approaches behind the personas.

Huaraka, who has a background in ethnographic research and evaluation of large language models, will help to ensure the personas are grounded in cultural reality.

Zhang, meanwhile, will lead development of Verve’s VIP validation processes and use them to create new models for quantitative insight.

Andrew Cooper, founder and chief executive, said: “We’ve seen our VIPS proposition really catch fire after over three and a half years of investment and foundation client success. This is helping us retain and grow existing clients as well as bring new relationships on board – and it’s helping our partner agencies do the same. Our new hires bring expanded capabilities, AI-native thinking and a positive, forward-looking approach to research, embracing the opportunity to shape a new model for insight.”