4 Min Read
What’s The Story behind the latest research? The Harris Poll helps you turn insights into strategic business impact.
(3-minute read) 4 findings, 1 thread: The brands winning right now are the clearest, not the loudest.
- Meet Lou: HarrisQuest’s native AI analyst surfaces brand insights in under 10 seconds. Expert-grade intelligence, no data team required.
- Join us at Sport Beach, Cannes Lions 2026: Going? Request a meeting with our team.
- Data quality: Low cost-per-interview looks attractive until you factor in cleaning, reweighting, and re-fielding. Bad data costs you twice.
- AI and finance: Half of Americans say managing money without AI will soon feel outdated. Clarity about what AI does, and doesn’t do, is now a baseline expectation.
Meet Lou: The AI Analyst Built Inside HarrisQuest
Most AI tools sit on top of dashboards. Lou works inside the measurement system itself – with full access to your brand data, saved analyses, and historical cuts from day one.
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Ask a question and Lou builds the segment, runs the analysis, renders the chart, and surfaces the insight. Usually in under 10 seconds.
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A brand marketing manager at a major international sports federation described building a year-over-year brand equity analysis across the U.S. and Mexico: “That’s normally a team effort. With Lou, I built it myself in minutes.”
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Every insight is grounded in real data and Harris Poll methodology. When the data doesn’t support a conclusion, Lou says so.
The takeaway: Brand intelligence shouldn’t live only with the data team. Lou extends always-on insight to brand managers, communications leaders, and executives – so the people closest to strategic decisions can act on data without waiting for an analyst. This is what happens when you build AI in, rather than bolt it on.
Join us at SPORT BEACH, Cannes Lions 2026
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SPORT BEACH brings together athletes, brands, and creatives at the intersection of sport, culture, and commerce. The Harris Poll is back as part of Stagwell’s activation – and we’re not just there to talk sport.
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We’ll be on the mainstage with data your competitors don’t have yet.
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Six members of our team will be on the ground: John Gerzema, Libby Rodney, Jenna Lauer, Jennifer Musil, Christie Bishop, and Zeke Hughes. Whether you want to dig into sports fandom, brand reputation, or what the data says about your category – find us.
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Sport is one of the last places where culture moves in real time. Come and talk to us about what your brand should be focused on next, not just in sport, but in every industry.
The Hidden Cost of Cheap Data
In market research, low cost-per-interview can look like smart procurement. It rarely is. The Harris Poll’s commitment to data quality makes the case for governance you can measure:
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Bad actors adapt faster than the tools designed to catch them: Gaming quality checks like Root Likelihood Score while producing zero real insight.
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The hidden costs of poor-quality data include cleaning, reweighting, re-fielding, and reputational risk: Factor those in and cheap data stops looking cheap.
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Quality isn’t about perfect data: No methodology can promise that. It’s about systemic, measurable, quantitative governance and knowing when something is wrong and having the processes to act on it.
The takeaway: Data quality is a procurement decision, but its consequences show up in strategy. Buyers who treat cost-per-interview as the primary quality signal are paying twice: once for the data, and again to fix it.
The State of Intelligent Finance
AI has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a baseline consumer expectation in financial services. The Harris Poll-Plaid Spring 2026 State of Intelligent Finance report shows how fast that shift has happened:
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55% of Americans have already used AI for financial tasks in the past 12 months. And 86% of those users say it helps them better understand their finances.
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50% say managing money without AI will soon feel outdated. This rises to 54% among Gen Z and Millennials.
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75% say it’s important to know when AI is being used in financial decisions. And 80% believe companies should reimburse them for AI-driven mistakes.
The takeaway: Consumers aren’t just open to AI in finance, they expect it. But empowerment and accountability go hand in hand. The financial brands that win will be the ones that build both intelligence and transparency into the core product experience.
