The Next Era of AI-powered Research

Time’s up for traditional research

Why AI-powered insight is the next competitive advantage for B2B marketers

In a world where decisions have to be made fast, many marketers still rely on outdated research tools that weren’t built for today’s pace.  
Traditional surveys. Static panels. Small sample sizes. Slow cycles. The data is often skewed, delayed, or simply inaccurate.

Ask an IT leader how often they refresh devices, and they’ll likely say “every three years”. But real-world data shows it’s clearly four. That’s not deception, it’s recall bias. And it’s everywhere in conventional research.

People also tend to respond aspirationally, not accurately. They answer based on what they think they should do, or what they believe someone in their role would say. It’s not dishonest; it’s just human. But still a problem. 

Even when the data is clean, it only tells you what happened at a single point in time. What you need is a trajectory of patterns over time. 

And consider conflicts of interest. When data and insights shift based on who’s commissioning the research, it stops being market truth and becomes marketing content. 

We need to stop asking and start listening 

Ethnography has long been the gold standard in qualitative research. Researchers would embed themselves in real environments, observing what people actually do. It was powerful, but slow. And not scalable. 

Today, AI has changed that. We can observe how people communicate across the digital channels they use every day. No prompts, no panels. Just the raw voice of the market.

Instead of asking people what they think, we analyze what they’re already saying. We tap into live, always-on digital behavior. Instead of survey bias, we get statistically sound signals, drawn from a constantly refreshed audience of over 10 million real users.  

Enter Watchtower 

Watchtower is our proprietary AI-powered research platform.  

It starts with a constantly refreshed panel of over 10 million users who post and engage regularly across social platforms.  

Watchtower scans Reddit, X, TikTok, Threads, and more to surface live, unprompted conversations from B2B buyers across roles, industries, and regions. (LinkedIn support is coming later this year.) 

Watchtower is designed to: 

– Define the audience you care about (by job role, company size, region, etc.) 

– Find relevant conversations using both keyword and semantic search 

– Filter out the noise, so you only get what matters 

– Track how sentiment evolves 

Where traditional research gives you answers weeks later, Watchtower provides clarity in minutes. 

Real-world use cases 

Watchtower has already helped: 

• A leading chipmaker understand how IT buyers perceive AI PCs, including their use cases, buying triggers, and blockers 
• A global software company create dynamic personas, updated quarterly, based on shifting behaviors and preferences 
• A major enterprise tech brand track KPIs with a 600,000+ sample—far beyond what any panel could deliver 

These insights serve as strategic inputs that drive smarter messaging, faster GTM decisions, and more relevant campaigns, content, and creative. 

Human + AI: Better together 

Let’s be clear. We’re not replacing researchers. We’re amplifying them. 

Watchtower blends AI scale with human strategy. Machine learning uncovers the patterns. Our strategy team reviews and refines every output, turning machine-discovered trends into clear, confident guidance. 

Yes, AI is changing everything. But what hasn’t changed is this: the marketers who understand their audience more deeply build better campaigns and drive better results. 

Watchtower turns the largest living dataset in the world into a constant stream of actionable insight. 

Want to dive deeper? [Download the full e-book →]