REAL INSIGHTS ARE THE TIP OF THE SPEAR IN THE AI AGE
In this age of information overload, data is everywhere, opinions are generic, and real insight is rare.
And when you have it, a correct insight reveals an “aha” moment that drives action.
In my experience, the best insights come from triangulating consumer research, analytics, and, more recently, machine signals. Three that stand out:
Tesla: The barrier wasn’t cost or performance. It was range anxiety, i.e. “Am I going to make it home from Tahoe?”
Action: Built an award-winning “Go Electric” pre-sales app with range calculators + supercharger maps. Eased fears, accelerated adoption.
CFIRE: Awe-inspiring visuals alone don’t scale. Easy-to-program immersive platforms do.
Action: Templates, playlists, and overlays drove engagement, variety, and property value, and the same framework powered Amora™, our conversational AI avatar for screens, proving flexibility can extend from visuals to on-site interaction.
Disney / X Games: Extreme athletes were already superheroes to youth. No youth-wash needed. Just enable athletes as creators through lifestyle + storytelling.
Action: Digitized X Games content. Opened a missing teen/youth demo, landed major sponsorships, extended IP. (Grateful to have shaped this work alongside LeeAnn Daly, Et al. back in the day.)
As Chip Huyen, Stanford lecturer on AI systems, notes:
“Evaluation is one of the most critical yet challenging aspects… foundation models produce nuanced, open-ended outputs that are harder to assess.”
That’s why I’ve been refining this triangulation framework through recent client work and conversations. It’s how we keep insights tied to real business outcomes and customer needs.
Insights matter. Maybe even more now.
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Part of an ongoing series: AI & Immersive - Shaping the World We Want to Live In