How AI Agents are Redefining the Future of Market Insights 

Silhouettes of a human head, gears, brain, and robotic arms on a blue and purple background with digital network lines and glowing effects.

The world of artificial intelligence is moving at lightning speed, and the concept of AI agents has brought about the pivotal ‘Agentic Era’. In fact, MarTech has claimed that 2025 will be ‘the year of the AI agent’ and EMarketer shared that 46% of marketing executives worldwide believe GenAI will significantly enhance real-time decision-making capabilities. With this innovation explosion, AI is no longer confined to just supportive tasks, it’s stepping into a world where it can independently perceive its environment, make decisions, and complete complex tasks with minimal human intervention. This is different from AI assistants that rely on specific prompts or instructions. 

In this blog, we’ll explore what makes AI agents unique and how these tools, alongside AI assistants, are redefining our workflows and the way we think about market insights. 

AI Assistants vs AI Agents

Within the world of AI, you’ll often hear about a variety of innovations, but two terms often surface in discussions: AI assistants and AI agents.

  • AI Assistants: These are specialized AI tools designed to help users with specific tasks by following commands or prompts. They work interactively, assisting users in real-time, much like having a digital sidekick.
    • Example: An AI assistant could summarize insights from live interviews or auto-moderated research activities or help remove language barriers for global research with automatic translations and AI-powered subtitles for research across multiple languages. 
  • AI Agents: AI agents tools go further and can take independent action, autonomously completing tasks and making decisions on behalf of the user without needing constant input. Think of them as a proactive problem solver rather than a reactive assistant.
    • Example: AI agents could take the reigns on coordinating interviews, moderating research activities, or even creating reports from your research without the need for human intervention. 

For example, an AI assistant might help transcribe and analyze research interviews, while an AI agent could autonomously schedule those interviews, moderate sessions, and even generate reports without constant input.

The Rise of AI Agents 

The buzz around AI agents is growing and we’re already seeing their influence across industries:

Salesforce’s Agentforce

Salesforce’s Agentforce is ‘designed to simulate how humans think and plan’ and enables AI agents to handle complex tasks across customer support, marketing, and sales. Examples include:

  • Campaign Optimizer: Manages and executes full campaign lifecycles. 
  • Service Agent: Replacing traditional chatbots in handling customer service.
  • Sales Coach: Training and supporting sales teams with real-time feedback.

Salesforce itself is using Agentforce internally and these AI agents are independently managing 83% of its customer support requests, reducing human intervention by 50%.

HubSpot’s Breeze AI

HubSpot’s Breeze AI performs tasks across marketing, sales, and customer service that would otherwise be performed by humans like:

  • Content Marketing: Delivering a consistent flow of ideas and topics, generating landing pages, podcasts, case studies, and blogs, or creating targeted content in your brand voice leveraging CRM data.
  • Sales Prospecting: Identifying and prioritizing top prospects in your CRM, generating personalized email outreach at scale, and automating your outreach strategy with auto-sent emails.

Google’s Gemini 2.0

Google’s Gemini 2.0 takes AI agents to the next level with advanced reasoning capabilities, planning, and real-world decision-making. Google’s new prototype, called Mariner, is based on Gemini 2.0 and essentially allows users to type requests into their web browser and have Mariner take actions on their behalf. 

  • For example, it can fill a virtual shopping cart with groceries, but the human remains in control and the purchase won’t be completed unless the user confirms it.

The Potential of AI Agents in Market Insights

The potential of AI agents in qualitative research and market insights promises exciting possibilities. Imagine a world where:

  • AI agents will handle interview scheduling across time zones and automatically send reminders.
  • They will moderate research activities and conversations, asking follow-up questions based on participant responses to get to the underlying motivations and emotions that drive consumer behaviors.
  • AI agents use your research summaries to generate images and videos that enhance your report or even search similar research to connect your findings to broader trends and insights.

While the technology is still maturing, the potential for automation in these areas will surely prove to be a game changer. It will also further open the door for individuals who aren’t trained market researchers, like brand or marketing professionals, to confidently run studies with their target audiences and more deeply understand their customers with minimal effort. 

What Should You Do Now?

Start small and explore how AI can automate the mundane tasks, freeing you to focus on more high-impact, strategic work. With AI’s capabilities growing every day, you’ll soon be able to reimagine your research workflows entirely. 

Here are a few steps for you to consider taking today:

Start Small: Use tools like ChatGPT to automate smaller tasks like writing discussion guides or creating screeners, being sure to add your human intelligence. They’re a great way to get familiar with AI’s capabilities and cut down the time spent on some of the more manual tasks of the research process.

Leverage Purpose-Built AI Assistants: Tap into the power of purpose-built AI assistants that can help you deliver better, faster, and cheaper market insights on a global scale, like Discuss’ GenAI Assistant, Genie. These AI assistants make it easy to uncover key insights from your target audiences in real-time and get answers for your business objectives in an instant.

Stay Informed & Integrate Thoughtfully: This technology is advancing quickly, and AI agents are expected to come onto the qual scene very shortly. Keep an eye on advancements in AI agents and think about how they could fit into your research workflows so you’re ready to adapt when the time is right.

A Future Built on Collaboration

The Agentic Era isn’t about replacing humans; it’s about collaboration. Together, AI Agents and AI Assistants are elevating human potential by enabling teams to focus on what matters most.

This means deeper connections with your target audience, asking the right questions, and delivering insights that drive smart business decisions. As we step further into this exciting era, the key is to remain curious and ready to embrace the possibilities that AI agents have to offer.

The future of research, and business as a whole, is being rewritten – and it’s an exciting story to be a part of. 

If you’re ready to be a part of that story, talk to an expert to learn more about how Discuss’ GenAI Assistant, Genie, can level up your research and help you work smarter and make more informed business decisions.

Ready to unlock human-centric market insights?

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