Kerry-Ellen Schwartz

Topics Kerry-Ellen shaped

AI & technology, Methods, methodology & rigor, Consumer behavior & culture, Industry, profession & meta

Episodes

• From insights to foresights: predicting what consumers will need next with Kerry-Ellen Schwartz — Ep. 63 · Jun 16, 2026

What Kerry-Ellen said — indexed claims

• Synthetic data is not a current fit for forward-looking innovation work: it is a model of past behavior, not real current consumer behavior, and it cannot predict the next big trend — for flavor foresight she must instead watch away-from-home channels, restaurants, and chefs and track how those signals trickle down to CPG. — Ep. 63 · cl-kerry-ellen-schwartz-014
• Because synthetic data is built on historical models, relying on it means perpetually replicating the past and cannot project drastic, unforeseen change driven by economic, political, or natural-disaster forces — COVID is the canonical example of consumer behavior no model could have predicted. — Ep. 63 · cl-kerry-ellen-schwartz-013
• The signal that an AI vendor tool truly adds value is that it speeds up the analysis of real data; the warning sign is AI personas and synthetic respondents replacing real people, where it is unclear whether anything is actually saved or whether the answers can be trusted at all. — Ep. 63 · cl-kerry-ellen-schwartz-017

Connected across the corpus

• Alec Levin (Learners) — 3 cross-references
• Sarah Haftings (Shurtape Technologies) — 3 cross-references
• Steve Olenski (CMO Whisperer Advisory) — 1 cross-reference
• Vladimer Botsvadze — 1 cross-reference

Produced by aytm

Curiosity Current is made by aytm, the consumer-insights company. About aytm