In this episode of Signal and Noise, Brian and Andrew sit down with Tom Anderson and Spencer Imel, co-founders and partners at The Langston Co, a quant-focused consumer insights firm known for deep category expertise and rigorous research standards.

Tom and Spencer share the origin story behind Langston, from their early days working together at a fast-growing Denver startup to building a research firm rooted in reliability, trust, and methodological discipline. What began as two social scientists exploring how to understand consumers evolved into a firm now operating at the intersection of AI, category intelligence, and scalable insights.

The core of the conversation centers on a bold idea: AI has made speed cheap, but trust is still expensive.

Langston describes its journey from early skepticism about AI to building a sophisticated internal Insights Assistant that sits on top of category-level survey ecosystems. Instead of treating AI as magic, the team invested heavily in understanding how large language models actually work, including context windows, tool calls, and failure points. By combining structured survey data, industry context, and documented research methodologies, they created a system that accelerates analysis without sacrificing rigor.

The episode includes a live walkthrough of their AI-powered Insights Assistant, demonstrating how a brand manager could instantly explore brand performance across age groups within a facial skincare category. The conversation then zooms out to tackle bigger questions about the future of research, including:

• Will chat-based AI become the new dashboard?

• How should firms balance automation with human interpretation?

• What happens to the role of the researcher in an AI-forward world?

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Learn more about The Langston Co:

• Website

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Brandon Richard returns to Signal and Noise for his second appearance, joining Brian and Andrew in person at The Link Group’s Durham, North Carolina, office. The conversation picks up where their previous AI discussion left off, diving deeper into what has actually changed in the past few months and what has not.

As an AI enthusiast and healthcare research leader, Brandon shares how The Link Group approaches AI pragmatically. Rather than chasing every new tool, the team focuses on understanding core AI categories such as conversational surveys, synthetic data, knowledge management, and generative productivity tools. The number of vendors may be exploding, but the foundational capabilities remain relatively stable.

The episode also explores a bigger existential question for the research industry. If AI can generate longitudinal synthetic respondents and analyze business questions directly, what role does market research play? Brandon argues that the value of research lies not just in answers but in the collaborative process. The refinement of business questions and the strategic intuition researchers bring to the table are difficult to replicate with a single AI prompt.

Key Takeaways:

• AI tools are multiplying fast, but the core research use cases have not changed much.

• Synthetic data still makes the most sense as augmentation, not replacement.

• The magic of research is in the process, not just the answer.

• AI is most powerful as a thinking accelerator.

• If research becomes “question in, answer out,” the industry is in trouble.

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In this special in-person episode of Signal and Noise, the hosts sit down with Beth Finn, CEO, and Jason Ebbing, COO of The Directions Group, for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of insights leadership.

Beth and Jason share their career paths, how The Directions Group approaches integrated intelligence, and what it means to move beyond siloed research toward clearer signals that drive real business action. The discussion also explores data quality, speed to insight, pricing research based on value, and how artificial intelligence should support rather than replace human thinking.

This episode offers a candid look at modern leadership in the insights industry and how organizations can stay relevant as decision-making accelerates and expectations rise.

Key Takeaways:

• Clients are overwhelmed with data but still struggle with clarity and decision-making

• Integrated intelligence works best when multiple data sources are planned together from the start

• Research teams gain influence when insights are tied directly to business actions

• Data quality must be usable, credible, and actionable to create real value

• AI should amplify human judgment, not replace it, especially in strategy and leadership

If you loved the episode, have comments, or want to appear on the show, connect with us down below!

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Connect with Beth:

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Connect with Jason:

• ⁠LinkedIn