Panel | Owning AI, not being owned by it: The evolving role of the insights team

AI continues to reshape the insights function, and the key question for many insights practitioners now is not whether to adopt it, but who controls it and how. As big CXM vendors embed LLMs into their platforms, synthetic data matures as a category and AI-native customer intelligence players deliver insights at scale, insights teams could either be the function leading how AI is used within the discipline, or could be recast as blockers as businesses seek to "democratize" data, or bypassed as buying shifts towards data functions. 

In this panel discussion, Jack Austin, Commercial Insights Lead at Virgin Media O2, and Bill Staikos, Chief Customer Officer of Be Customer Led and former Head of CX at BNY Mellon, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse, will come together to make the case that insights and CX teams should sit at the center of the AI agenda, not least because they own the vast corpus of survey data and customer context that makes AI systems are built on. The discussion will dig into the buy-vs-build dilemma with an honest look at the realities of easier building but significant maintenance and governance. We'll also tackle the synthetic data question, exploring where it can genuinely help and where over-reliance can be risky. 

Attendees will learn:

• Why insights and CX teams should own AI and how to stay central as buying power shifts towards data and IT functions.
• How to approach build-vs-buy realistically, with a view of where building in-house can make sense and where the maintenance can be prohibitive.
• Where synthetic data adds value versus where it's over-trusted, and how to balance AI testing with genuine customer contact and feedback.