In this episode, Brian and Andrew sit down with Jase Bumgardner, a 25-year partner at The Link Group, a healthcare-focused market research consultancy. Jase leads complex, multi-year research work streams in neuroscience and new product planning, most notably alongside Eli Lilly, following products from early concept all the way through FDA approval and launch.

Jase brings a grounded, refreshingly calm perspective to a conversation the podcast usually approaches with a bit more urgency. Where Brian and Andrew often find themselves in the AI doom spiral, Jase comes in as a self-described pragmatist. He estimates AI has changed roughly 10 to 15 percent of what his team actually does day to day, and he sees it primarily as amplification, not replacement. The real disruption, in his view, is still mostly theoretical for firms doing elite, high-stakes consultative research.

The conversation covers how The Link Group made AI a formal priority years ago through a structured task force, a five-year strategic plan, and ongoing sentiment checks to see if it's actually moving the needle with clients. Jase also pushes back thoughtfully on the rush to adopt, citing data showing only 13 percent of brand-side clients are satisfied with generative AI results, and warns against what he calls the "great de-skilling," where reflexively outsourcing thinking to AI erodes the very capabilities that make great researchers irreplaceable.

Key Takeaways:

• How The Link Group built a deliberate, mission-aligned AI strategy rather than chasing every new tool

• Why the "any benefit" mindset around AI adoption is a problem, and how to think about net benefit instead

• The risk of de-skilling as reading, writing, and independent thinking get offloaded to AI tools

• Why market research is still fundamentally a talent and relationship game, and why that is not changing anytime soon

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