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Entropik’s CEO on Emotion AI’s impact on global markets and consumer research trends
Ranjan Kumar discusses digitising research methods, upcoming trends, and focus on technology, products, and markets.
Often, people yearn for a means or entity capable of intuitively understanding their thoughts and wishes. According to a study conducted by Allied Market Research, the worldwide Emotion AI market reached a valuation of USD 1.8 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 13.8 billion by 2032, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7%.
According to an Economic Times report, brands are increasingly integrating Emotion AI concepts which allow them to track metrics such as facial expressions, eye movements, voice modulations, and body movements. The OTT platform ZEE5 employs Emotion AI technology to identify content preferences in India's tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Additionally, P&G analyses the subconscious preferences of consumers to enhance the package design of its products.
Entropik is an Indian AI company focussed on human insights, specialising in consumer and user research. Its technology stack encompasses Emotion AI, Behavior AI, and Generative AI, providing services to brands like KFC, TATA AIG Insurance, Mondelēz International, Reckitt, Cipla, P&G, Disney, TATA Group, and Kellogg’s.
Reflecting on the company’s journey, Ranjan Kumar, founder and CEO, Entropik, states that they expanded the brand's expertise to create a one-stop platform for all kinds of consumer research which encompasses a broader range of AI applications.
“Brands are still going through the transformation journey where they are going from an offline CLT (communicative language teaching) way of doing surveys, and group discussions to bringing it online in a digital environment. Entropik comes as a one-stop platform for all kinds of consumer research that one wants to do including traditional methods of surveys, bringing a strong AI layer on top of it along with generative AI as well,” he says.
Entropik introduced two of its products namely Decode, a DIY (do it yourself) consumer research platform, and Qatalyst, a DIY user research platform in 2023. The Voice AI is used in Decode to analyse voice transcription, translation, and tonality. On the other hand, Qatalyst provides users with on-time, actionable insights to streamline decision-making.
Reflecting on these product launches, Kumar explains, “These two product positionings were the major game changer for us, and from there, we got momentum and catapulted the growth across four geographies that we operate in.”
The Indian market contributes to 18% of our revenue.
Entropik works with clients across the US, Europe, Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, with 70% of its revenue coming from the US and European markets. Kumar says that these two markets are a little more mature than the SE Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern markets in regards to technology. Another factor that makes them prominent is monetisation as, in comparison, the Indian market can often be sceptical about investing.
“A lot of brands in India found value in us but the question arises whether they are ready to pay for that incremental uptake or not. The Indian market contributes to 18% of our revenue. By the count of customers, India is the biggest market for us. On the other hand, by dollar value, the US and European market become the biggest market for us,” he notes.
Using Emotion AI, one gets to understand the kind of ad viewers are watching, where the attention is low, and whether people are looking at the endorser/celebrity, product, or call to action.
The importance of Emotion AI
Brands want to understand consumers by delving into their behaviour, reactions, and feedback through two major approaches. The first involves quantitative methods, such as conducting surveys. The second method entails focussed group discussions, where participants provide feedback on specific products or services. According to Kumar, doing surveys has been a lot more confirmatory in nature than focussed methods.
“Using Emotion AI, one gets to understand the kind of ad viewers are watching, where the attention is low, and whether people are looking at the endorser/celebrity, product, or call to action. Therefore, the granularity of insights becomes richer. Plus, with no questions being asked, there is no bias. The brands are only tracking facial expressions and eye movements of where the viewers are looking at,” he adds.
To convey its message clearly, Entropik rolled out its first brand awareness campaign in March 2023 called “The New Master of Observations | Unleash Your Inner Sherlock Holmes.” Kumar says that the idea behind the campaign was to showcase the insights provided by Emotion AI which traditional methods fail to uncover.
“The campaign panned out pretty well as brands picked this idea of how a Sherlock-kind technology can find a person’s face or eye movement and decide whether they are into the ad or not. It got over 40,000 views which increased the website traffic by 10%.”
Upcoming trends in the consumer research industry
According to a study from the Market Research Society of India (MRSI), India is the world’s third-largest market research and insights industry, and is projected to grow to USD 3.4 billion in 2024.
Kumar is of the view that the first and foremost trend in the consumer research industry is that AI is here to stay and is going to be an integral part of people’s lives and the growth of businesses.
There is a lot of focus on customer experience and the kind of product brands are creating.
Talking about other trends, he comments, “The agency play is going to change and will be taken over by the products because agencies are slow and costly, and products are faster. Everyone wants to have an in-house intelligence team, therefore they need tools.”
“The overall uptake of consumer research is going to be significantly higher. I think there is a lot of focus on customer experience and the kind of product brands are creating. Hence, consumer centricity is going to be substantial,” he adds.
We are continuously pushing the envelope for products to be superlative and AI-heavy which solve meaningful problems.
Key focus areas in 2024
Kumar states that in 2024, Entropik’s focus will be on improved technology, better products, and expanding its market presence. “We are at a good inflexion point of growth. We are growing two times quarter-on-quarter, and our net new sales are increasing about two times every quarter. We are continuously pushing the envelope for products to be superlative and AI-heavy which solve meaningful problems to make Entropik a one-stop solution for all kinds of consumers,” he states.