Change Agents: Inside Modern Insights

On this episode of Change Agents: Inside Modern Insights, host Devora Rogers sits down with Rebecca Brooks to explore the growing "trust recession" reshaping consumer behavior. Drawing on years of Alter Agents consumer sentiment tracking research, Rebecca explains why shoppers are spending more time researching purchases, relying on peer validation, and approaching even routine buying decisions with skepticism. The conversation explores how economic uncertainty, information overload, AI-generated content, and declining institutional trust are creating a new era of consumer decision-making. Rebecca shares what brands need to understand about today's cautious shoppers, why transparency matters more than ever, and how companies can rebuild trust in a world where consumers increasingly feel the burden of proving every purchase is worth the risk.About the GuestRebecca Brooks is CEO and co-founder of Alter Agents, an award-winning market research consultancy that works with brands such as Snapchat, YouTube, Audacy, Viking River Cruises, Pinterest, and others to help them gain powerful, actionable insights. Named to Inc.’s Female Founders List, Rebecca established her company on the belief that research could be done differently. This disruptive, innovative mindset delivers high-quality insights to clients that bridge knowledge gaps and reveal key drivers of consumer behavior. She is co-author of the book, Influencing Shopper Decisions: Unleash the Power of Your Brand to Win Customers, which explains the forces that drive consumer decision-making, plus unveils key insights and strategies that marketers can use to maintain relevancy and grow engagement with consumers. Rebecca regularly shares her knowledge and original research on consumer behavior, the promiscuous shopper and brand alignment by speaking at national conferences and authoring feature articles for global publications. To learn more, visit:https://alteragents.com/ Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:https://missionmatters.com/author/devora-rogers

In this episode of Change Agents: Inside Modern Insights, Devora Rogers sits down with neuroscientist and researcher Vanessa Hensler to explore how neuroscience, emotion and human intuition continue to shape better decision-making in the age of AI. Vanessa shares lessons from her work at Google, Pinterest and Reddit, including the insight that helped reshape a company’s growth strategy, why mixed methodologies often reveal what traditional surveys miss and why human-led research matters more than ever. The conversation also dives into the future of neuroscience in market research, the rise of AI-generated insights and the methods that still uncover the deepest emotional truths behind consumer behavior.About the Guest:Vanessa Hensler, Ph.D. is the founder of Outsight Insights, which operates at the intersection of neuroscience, business strategy, and storytelling to uncover emotional truths that drive action. She is a neuroscientist with over two decades of academic and industry experience. Her Ph.D. under Dr. Antonio Damasio was focused on the role of emotions in decision making.She has used her research expertise to develop new company-wide strategies grounded in data at Reddit, Google and Pinterest. She has partnered with C-suite, led teams across product, market and safety research and helped clients across verticals drive higher ROI. To learn more, visit:https://alteragents.com/ Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:https://missionmatters.com/author/devora-rogers

In this episode of Change Agents: Inside Modern Insights, Devora Rogers sits down with Julia Berk, Senior Director of Global Insights, Analytics and Research at Smartly, to explore how research leaders are navigating the AI era without losing sight of quality, context and human insight. Julia reflects on the breakthrough Gen Z research she led at Snapchat, why visual communication transformed social platforms and how AI is changing the way organizations synthesize, reuse and operationalize research. The conversation also dives into stakeholder management, data ethics, synthetic audiences, insight repositories and why semiotics still plays a powerful role in modern research.About the GuestJulia Berk is a Senior Director of Global Analytics, Insights & Research at Smartly, where she leads marketing science, analytics, and research. She focuses on building AI-powered systems that connect customer engagement, creative performance, and marketing effectiveness into actionable insights, helping global brands and internal teams make smarter, faster decisions. She previously held insights leadership roles at Uber Ads and Snapchat.  To learn more, visit:https://alteragents.com/ Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:https://missionmatters.com/author/devora-rogers

In this episode of Change Agents, Devora Rogers sits down with Aarti Bhaskaran, global head of research and insights at Snapchat, to unpack the moment that shaped her career and why research remains a critical voice in business decisions. From early lessons in proving skeptics wrong to navigating AI’s growing role in the industry, the conversation explores what makes a great researcher, how to choose the right methodology and why human empathy and curiosity still sit at the center of meaningful insights.About the Guest:Aarti is a storyteller, strategic thinker and insights leader with nearly 20 years of experience in consumer insights. She currently leads global research & insights at Snapchat. In her role, she manages a global team to produce thought leadership to educate the advertising industry and marketing community on new ad formats, audiences and platforms through data-driven insights and empirical evidence. Her team also manages measurement relationships with Global Media Holding companies and media partners.Prior to joining Snap, she was a client leader at Kantar managing a portfolio that included Microsoft, LinkedIn, Visa, TikTok and Snapchat. Before that, she built the Insights and Analytics practice at MediaCom Canada. Here she launched Canada-specific solutions to measure media performance to drive business for MediaCom’s clients. Prior to that, she was located in Singapore, where she was the Asia Pacific lead on brand performance and creative development research for PepsiCo and Friesland Campina. To learn more, visit:https://alteragents.com/ Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:https://missionmatters.com/author/devora-rogers