On the 13th November, Bolt hosted the first ever Bolt Summit in our home city of London, bringing together insight leaders from across the industry to explore how AI blended with human expertise is reshaping the future of research.
Led by the Bolt Insight team, the event highlighted how researchers are stepping into more strategic, story-driven roles. From scaling conversations to deepening understanding, the Summit showed how intelligent tools are helping to put meaning at the heart of decision-making.
Opening Keynote
Hakan Yurdakul, CEO and Co-Founder of Bolt Insight, opened the Summit with a clear message: AI is not here to replace human expertise, it is here to elevate it. He outlined how AI can enhance qualitative work by adding speed, structure and scalability, while keeping empathy and human context firmly at the centre.
Double Distilled: The Power of Qual + Quant in Whyte & Mackay’s Decision-Making
John Neilson, Client Development Director at Bolt Insight, was joined on-stage by Connor Smyth, International Category Controller at Whyte & Mackay. They shared how the brand have been using Bolt’s mixed-methodology research as a hybrid approach that’s become central to how their team learns, aligns and decides.
They walked through how AI-moderated conversations let them tap into human stories, while follow-up quant validation grounds those stories in evidence.
Fireside Chat: Researching Foods, GLP-1 and Sensitive Topics with AI
In a thoughtful discussion, Sara Green Head of Category & Insight at Bahlsen, Emma Schofield, Associate Director at Mintel and Ester Marchetti, Co-Founder & Head of Innovation at Bolt Insight explored the realities of researching sensitive and emerging behavioural trends, from food choices to GLP-1 usage.
Their conversation highlighted how AI-led discussions create a safer, more open environment for participants…surfacing honesty, complexity and nuance that are often difficult to capture through traditional methods. The session underscored how AI is a tool that can support researchers in accessing richer, more contextual insight at scale.
Panel Discussion: The Future Role of a Traditional Researcher in an Agentic World
Moderated by Inna Merenkova from Insights Lighthouse, this panel brought together industry leaders Nitesh Priyadarshi, Chief Strategic Insights & Analytics Officer at Danone, Marie Robelin, Insights Growth Strategy & Transformation Lead at Unilever and Vesna Hajnsek, Senior Insights Manager at L’Occitane, for a forward-looking discussion on how the researcher’s role is evolving in the age of agentic AI.
The panellists explored the shift from manual data gathering towards more strategic, interpretive and influence-driven responsibilities. As AI takes on operational tasks such as moderation, organisation and scale, the role of the human researcher is transforming…with greater emphasis on sense-making, narrative building and guiding organisational decision-making.
The conversation highlighted a shared belief that the future of insight will be defined by researchers who can combine technological fluency with human empathy and storytelling.
The AI Mirror: What Artificial Intelligence Can Teach Us About the Human Brain
Juliana Macedo, Founder of The Long Game Mindset Coach, delivered one of the Summit’s most thought-provoking sessions, exploring the parallels between how AI processes information and how the human mind interprets the world.
Juliana’s session underscored the importance of using AI not just to analyse data but to better appreciate the complexities of the human brain; reinforcing the Summit’s central theme of technology elevating, rather than replacing human understanding.
Drinks & Networking: Continuing the Conversation
This closing session reinforced one of the key strengths of Bolt Summit 2025: bringing together a community of industry leaders who care deeply about the future of insight and who recognise the importance of working collectively to advance human-centred, AI-enhanced research.
The day concluded with drinks and networking, giving attendees the opportunity to carry forward the conversations sparked throughout the Summit…and and to continue shaping the future together. Stay tuned for what’s next!
