At Programmatic Live London: MiQ Sigma Edition, industry leaders explored how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way brands understand consumers — from making sense of billions of data points to reuniting creativity and strategy.
AI is changing marketing at speed, but one thing hasn’t changed: brands still need to understand what truly drives consumer behaviour. The ‘From signal to action: how AI is decoding consumer behaviour’panel, moderated by Jon Mew, CEO of IAB UK, brought together experts from T&P, Arena Media, Mindscope, and MiQ to explore how AI is redefining insight, creativity and agency culture.
Making sense of the signals
For Caroline Reynolds, Global Chief Performance Officer at T&P, the opportunity is clear but complex. “It’s not just one signal — that’s inherently the problem,” she said. “Consumers spend time in so many different places, and we need AI to bring that together in ways we never could before. For me, it’s about using that intelligence not just to reach the right person at the right moment, but to tie that action to real outcomes.”
Reynolds explained that AI is collapsing the traditional media workflow, uniting strategy, planning and activation. “We’re no longer talking about aggregated panel data. We have live consumer insight. Our programmatic teams and social teams now act as strategists, planners and buyers in one, closing the gap between knowing and doing.”
AI companion
Where a great deal of excitement lies is in AI’s ability to extend human creativity. Sometimes doing so in weird and wonderful ways.
“Please forgive me but because he’s my hero, I built an agent inspired by Rory Sutherland,” admitted Hamid Habib, Managing Director at Arena Media, to laughter. “I read loads of his and his peers’ articles and created a framework for a Temu version of the way he thinks, and I now talk to that agent regularly. It’s obviously not as good as Rory, but it gives me new ways of thinking that would have been impossible six months ago.”
Habib’s point was less about novelty and more about transformation. “We’ve gone from needing an analyst and months of work to process data to being able to do it instantly,” he said.
He described using AI-driven insights to help Dr. Martens identify new growth markets — including postcode-level analysis that revealed where female-led sales were rising. “It’s efficiency and effectiveness. The data drives smarter decisions, and the insights open up creative ideas we wouldn’t have found before.”
The human advantage
According to Lea Karam, CEO and Founder of Mindscope, the goal isn’t to replace human creativity but to enhance it. “People always ask if AI will eliminate noise or smooth out humanity,” she said. “But they’re not mutually exclusive. It’s about using AI to find new cultural signals that humans alone can’t see.”
Karam sees AI as a tool for unlocking new subcultures and dynamic trends. “If Dr. Martens could use AI to map three or four emerging subcultures in real-time, that’s a gold mine,” she explained. “I’ve spent the past decade integrating predictive technology with behavioural science, and the results are clear: AI, when used right, gives brands a cultural advantage.”
Karam also pushed back against the idea that Gen Z is distracted or fickle. “They’re actually better at filtering noise. They know what they want and why. That makes them more brand loyal than previous generations. They just demand authenticity and connection.”
Reuniting creativity and data
Lara Koenig, VP Strategy and Partnerships at MiQ, leads what is jokingly called “the signals crew.” For her, AI is closing the gap between fragmented data and human understanding. “Consumers engage with brands across hundreds of touchpoints — from ChatGPT to social to in-store,” she said. “AI structures that chaos into something usable. It lets planners and buyers have a conversation with the data for the first time.”
Koenig’s team has embedded this principle directly into MiQ’s Sigma platform, which merges creative and data insights. “When you look at performance metrics, you see the creative alongside it,” she explained. “It reminds you that frequency problems might actually be creative problems. We’re using AI to bring the magic back; to make creativity and targeting part of the same conversation again.”
She also shared a cautionary example from working with a luxury brand: “AI flagged Cosmopolitan and Grazia as top sites for perfume buyers. But when we looked closer, the relevant pages were all about dupes — fake knock-off perfumes. It showed why you can’t view data sources in isolation. The power is in combining them to understand real behaviour.”
Agencies in transition
As AI reshapes every aspect of the marketing process, the agency model itself is evolving. Habib predicted a convergence of roles. “Once upon a time, planners handed things off to buyers. Today, it’s all one platform. The future belongs to people who can operate across strategy, creativity, and data.”
Reynolds agreed, referring to individuals who operate in this way as being “M-shaped people.” She added that AI challenges agencies to be more connected and collaborative. “We can now integrate live retail data, social data, and content performance in real-time. But it only works if our people can bring that together across strategy, activation, and creativity.”
Habib concluded on a hopeful note: “The boring work will be done for you, which means more time for the interesting stuff. AI won’t replace creativity; it’ll give us more space for it.”
Looking ahead
As the discussion wrapped up, Mew reflected on what many in the audience were likely thinking: a renewed optimism about AI’s role in marketing.
Koenig summed it up best: “AI isn’t just about automation or prediction. It’s about making data accessible so marketers can finally speak the same language as consumers — no matter how complex the signals get.”
