From Data Analysis to Promotion Strategy… Research and Marketing 'AI Agents' Are Rising

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Understanding consumers is a core challenge for all companies. The ability to identify what customers want and why they make purchasing decisions determines business success or failure. However, properly analyzing this requires experience and expertise in knowing what questions to ask, how to interpret data, and how to find meaningful signals within it. Until now, such capabilities were considered the domain accumulated by marketers and researchers over long periods.

AI (artificial intelligence) solution startups are lowering the threshold for this kind of experience and expertise. Services that enable practitioners with limited research or marketing experience to conduct consumer surveys, analyze data, and derive insights by following AI guidance are emerging one after another. In the global market, big tech companies like Qualtrics and Salesforce are leading competition in AI-based research and marketing platforms, while similar changes driven by AI are also gaining momentum in Korea's research and marketing sector.

OpenSurvey recently introduced AI functions across its consumer intelligence platform 'DataSpace'. AI agents perform roles at each stage: an 'AI Researcher' that supports writing briefs containing targets and objectives for surveys, as well as survey design; and an 'AI Analyst' that analyzes data through a conversational interface.

Hwang Hee-young, CEO of OpenSurvey, stated, "As AI lowers the barrier to conducting research, more practitioners can now utilize consumer data." He added, "In the future, a company's competitiveness will depend on how quickly it can translate data into business execution."

ThinkingAI provides services where AI agents collect and analyze user behavior data in gaming, e-commerce, and media sectors, connecting them to marketing execution. Its recently launched 'Agentic Engine' combines external news with corporate action data to automatically propose and execute marketing campaigns. This solution reduces the time spent on data analysis and enables practitioners to easily formulate strategies.

Startups aiming to revolutionize marketing tasks using AI are also attracting investment funds. Influencer marketing company Featuring recently secured a Series B investment of 15.3 billion won. Leveraging its proprietary data engine, it recommends influencers that meet specific criteria and automates campaign performance analysis through report generation, supporting data-driven marketing decision-making.

The investment industry has evaluated Featuring's shift from influencer marketing based on intuition and experience to one grounded in AI and data as a key competitive advantage. Based on this investment, Featuring plans to accelerate its expansion into the Japanese market while also advancing its AI-based marketing solutions.

GIGR, a Korean-founded startup headquartered in San Francisco, USA, recently secured a pre-seed investment of 7.9 billion won. GIGR's service 'PlayAd' is structured so that AI agents perform organizational roles such as marketing director, creative director, and data analyst. It focuses on automating the entire process from ad planning to material creation, performance analysis, and campaign management to increase marketing execution speed.

Investment firms are believed to have focused on the cost-saving effects of using AI in marketing. An industry insider stated, "Instead of expanding marketing team sizes, companies are increasingly seeking to maximize productivity by leveraging AI."

[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]