Greenbook Podcast

Fresh from IIEX AI, Karen Lynch and Sarah Snudden unpack the ideas that stood out across two packed days of conversations about AI and the future of research. They explore why AI’s biggest opportunity isn’t simply greater speed or productivity, but creating more room for strategic thinking, stronger relationships, and better business decisions. Sarah and Karen discuss accountability in AI-assisted work, the evolving role of synthetic data and AI-moderated qualitative research, and why human judgment remains essential even as research workflows become increasingly automated. The conversation also underscores a key takeaway from IIEX AI: cognitive offloading can be useful, but cognitive surrender is not. Researchers still need to question AI outputs, apply critical thinking, and remain accountable for the work.
Key Discussion Points
Moving beyond productivity: Why time saved through AI can be reinvested in strategic thinking, skill building, relationship building, and higher-value business advisory work.
Keeping humans accountable: Why researchers need to own AI-assisted decisions and outputs rather than fall into “accountability offloading” or cognitive surrender.
Synthetic data and AI-powered research: Where synthetic data, digital twins, and AI moderation can add value—and why real-world data and thoughtful validation remain important.
The changing research toolkit: How AI-assisted qualitative research is expanding access to richer conversations while UX, MRX, technology, and cultural insights increasingly converge.
Developing the next generation of researchers: Why experienced researchers need to model critical thinking and methodological rigor so early-career professionals learn how to recognize, question, and improve AI-generated work.

Resources & Links
IIEX West
You can reach out to Sarah Snudden on LinkedIn.
Many thanks to Sarah Snudden for being our guests. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What if an insight doesn’t lead to action? Does that mean it failed? In this episode of the Greenbook Podcast, Karen Lynch speaks with Nadine van Rooyen, Senior Effectiveness Manager at WEX, about challenging one of the insights industry’s most persistent assumptions: that value is defined by actionability. Nadine explains why insights can create meaningful business impact even when recommendations aren’t implemented, and how decision quality, prioritization, and organizational trade-offs offer a more complete picture of success. They also explore the importance of understanding internal stakeholders, tailoring insights to different audiences, and using AI to strengthen communication without losing the human relationships that make insights influential. For research and insights professionals, it’s a compelling case for measuring value across the entire decision-making process.
Key Discussion Points
Moving beyond actionability as the ultimate measure of success: Why a recommendation that isn’t implemented can still improve understanding, prioritization, and decision-making.
Measuring insights across a value chain: Nadine explains how trust, context, prioritization, trade-offs, and decision quality all contribute to the impact of research.
Why better decisions matter more than perfect outcomes: Business decisions rarely happen with complete information, making insights an essential piece of a much larger organizational puzzle.
Treating internal stakeholders like distinct audiences: How tailoring insights for finance, sales, customer service, leadership, and other teams can increase relevance and influence.
The future of insights in an AI-powered organization: Why AI can help researchers better understand stakeholders and communicate effectively, while human relationships remain irreplaceable.

Resources & Links
WEX
IIEX Events

You can reach out to Nadine van Rooyen on LinkedIn.
Many thanks to Nadine van Rooyen for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What happens when AI becomes more than a tool and starts shaping the interface itself? Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred of Big Medium, co-authors of Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI, join Karen Lynch to explore a new approach to designing AI-powered experiences. They discuss treating AI as a design material, moving beyond chat-based interfaces, and creating products that adapt to users’ context and intent in real time. The conversation also examines one of AI design’s biggest challenges: trust. Josh and Veronika share approaches for building transparency, explainability, and healthy skepticism into intelligent systems. For UX researchers and insights professionals, they explain why user research becomes even more important as AI changes product development—and how researchers can take a more active role in shaping the products themselves.
Key Discussion Points
Moving beyond chat with AI: How sentient design uses AI as a creative design material to build intelligent, adaptive interfaces rather than simply adding chatbots or AI tools to existing products.
Designing experiences that adapt in real time: How interfaces can respond to user context and intent, including dynamically generated dashboards and AI agents that work alongside users within familiar environments.
Building trust into AI-powered products: Why AI’s confidence can be misleading and how transparency, explainability, visible sources, and “productive humility” can help users evaluate AI-generated outputs.
Balancing AI opportunity with risk: How designers can determine where AI is appropriate, identify unacceptable risks, and build safeguards into systems where failure has meaningful consequences.
The evolving role of UX research and insights: Why researchers need to participate throughout design and development—and how research findings can become direct instructions that shape how AI-powered products behave.

Resources/Links
⁠Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI - Use code SENTIENT-GREENBOOK for 20% off your purchase of the book at Rosenfeld Media through September 30, 2026.
⁠Big Medium

You can reach out to Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred on LinkedIn.
Many thanks to Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred for being our guests. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

How can established insights organizations innovate with AI without sacrificing the rigor and trust that made them successful? Thania Farrar, Senior Vice President of Corporate Innovation at Burke, joins Lenny Murphy to explore how the firm is evolving from traditional market research toward decision intelligence. They discuss building AI-enabled systems that connect fragmented data, deliver insight closer to the moment of decision, and preserve the value of expert judgment. Thania also explains why high-quality human data remains essential, how transparency strengthens client relationships during uncertain times, and why governance, privacy, and provenance could shape AI adoption. The conversation closes with a call for greater industry collaboration and renewed attention to qualitative research, behavioral science, and the complexities that make people—and business decisions—impossible to reduce to data alone.
Key Discussion Points
How Burke is evolving its long history of research innovation into a more intentional decision intelligence model.
Why AI can accelerate insight production, but cannot replace quality data, expert judgment, and human understanding.
How connected data systems can shorten the distance between a business question and a confident decision.
Why trust, transparency, governance, privacy, and data provenance will be essential to responsible AI adoption.
The growing importance of qualitative research, behavioral science, and industry-wide knowledge sharing.

Resources and Links
Burke, Inc.

You can reach out to Thania Farrar on LinkedIn
Many thanks to Thania Farrar for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What happens when evidence, communications, and AI converge? Crispin Beale, Worldwide CEO of IDX, joins Karen Lynch to explain why organizations must rethink how they manage their narratives in an era shaped by answer engines, synthetic audiences, and machine-led discovery. He shares how IDX is integrating data and insights across performance marketing, corporate communications, and investor relations to help clients make more rigorous decisions without slowing down creative work. Crispin also explores the promise and risks of synthetic data, arguing that transparency and clear tagging are essential to prevent contaminated “data lakes” and protect longitudinal research. The conversation also covers IDX’s Geneva data and insights hub, the value of global industry networks, and how leaders can build cultures where experimentation, collaboration, and responsible innovation thrive.
Key Discussion Points
Why communications must be designed for both human audiences and AI-powered answer engines.
How IDX is embedding data and insights into creative, performance marketing, corporate communications, and investor relations.
The value of testing creative concepts with real consumers and synthetic audiences before launch.
Why synthetic data must be clearly tagged to maintain transparency, research integrity, and trustworthy data.
How leaders can encourage innovation through cross-functional collaboration, open communication, experimentation, and permission to fail.

Resources and Links
IDX
The Future Role of Communications is Taking Shape
Insight Innovation Competition

You can reach out to Crispin Beale on LinkedIn
Many thanks to Crispin Beale for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.