YOUR NEXT MOVE?
A guide for mid-career researchers considering the move into AI-powered insights - told by three people at Verve who've made it.
RECOGNISE THIS?
We spoke to three researchers at Verve who asked themselves exactly this - and made the move to AI-focused insights. |
MEET THE MID-CAREER MOVERS
CHLOE STEVENS
Growth Director
Twelve years in Insight, most recently as a qualitative specialist running brand strategy work in Australia. Now working with clients across Insight & AI application.
| “ |
Your experience is not invalid - it's a shift. |
SAM WINTERBOTTOM
Associate Director
Engineering degree, followed by 7 years at a traditional market research agency. Now builds the award-winning AI-powered simulations and tools Verve runs on.
| “ | I wanted a new challenge - to feel like I was learning at a high rate again. |
TANA-MARIA BOTEZAT
Associate Director
Eight years in shopper research and ethnography, then led innovation work. Now an Associate Director at Verve using personas & simulations to deliver client work.
| “ | The core skills are the same - you just changed the medium. |
HOW WE WORK DIFFERENTLY
AI CURIOSITY OVER AI CREDENTIALS
You don't need to arrive an expert — AI is completely learnable. But you do need to be willing to become a beginner again, to be open and curious.
OUTCOME-DRIVEN OVER METHODOLOGY-PRECIOUS
For us what matters in research is the impact — the decision informed, the shift it creates for a client — not strict adherence to how it's always been done.
COMFORTABLE CEDING AUTHORITY TO JUNIORS
AI is so new that no-one has an advantage. The traditional hierarchy flattens — we're genuinely open to direction and challenge from people early in their career.
WHAT CARRIES OVER
DESIGNING GREAT RESEARCH
The discipline of a well-built study — structure, sequencing, anticipating what will and won't work — is the same, just applied to designing a simulation.
APPLIED UNDERSTANDING OF RESEARCH CONCEPTS
What's meant by an 'insight' or a 'trend' now has to be made explicit and precise enough to instruct an AI — applied research knowledge matters more, not less.
KNOWING WHAT GOOD FEELS LIKE
Years spent talking to people is what enables you to build a believable simulation or persona, and just as importantly, anticipate what will excite the client.
THE SHIFT
This is what the move into AI-powered insights looks like day to day.
A project still starts the way it always has — a kick-off call, working out what the client needs. What changes is everything after that: instead of designing a survey or discussion guide, the team decides which client data to draw on, how to structure it, and how to build a system that delivers answers — bringing in the cultural and contextual understanding that makes a simulation respond like real people, not just data. Then come rounds of testing and validation, overseen closely to make sure the simulation holds up before a client sees it.
How you spend your time shifts too. A well-built simulation surfaces more — and better — insight than manual analysis ever could, freeing you up for the strategic thinking that actually moves a client.
And the work stops being a one-off. The deliverable stays live, not fixed, building more value the longer a client uses it — and the relationship follows suit, less handing over findings, more guiding a client through something genuinely new to them, coaching as much as delivering.
INTERESTED IN MAKING THE MOVE?
At Verve we’re interested in hearing from skilled researchers curious about where AI and human insight meet.
If there's a live role that fits, we'd love to hear from you. If there isn't, reach out anyway — we're always open to a conversation.