Prosper Insights - Consumer Futures

Customers Demand AI Security: Are You Listening?This podcast dives into an article by Gary Drenik for Forbes, highlighting the increasing consumer demand for AI security and responsible data practices. It emphasizes that customers are now making purchasing decisions based on their trust in how companies handle their data, with a significant percentage unwilling to engage with organizations they don't trust. The podcast further explores various AI-related concerns, such as the need for human oversight, transparency, and accuracy, alongside emerging security vulnerabilities in AI systems. Ultimately, the podcast argues that building trust through clear communication, ethical design, and adherence to evolving regulations is crucial for businesses utilizing AI, impacting both customer loyalty and financial success.

Kohl's Customer Guesswork: The Cost of Ignoring Data.

This podcast is based on the article, "Rethinking Retail: Kohl's Learns The Cost Of Customer Guesswork" by Gary Drenik for Forbes. It highlights Kohl's past strategic missteps in alienating its core customers by reducing coupon access. It emphasizes that financial data alone does not drive consumer behavior and that understanding customer motivations, psychographics, and future spending intentions is crucial for retail success. The podcast references Prosper Insights & Analytics' extensive consumer data, which clearly indicated Kohl's customers were financially stressed and value-driven, making the decision to limit coupons a significant oversight. The author argues that forward-looking, human-centric data is essential for retailers to avoid costly miscalculations and to build loyalty in a rapidly changing market. Ultimately, the article advocates for a shift from solely transactional analysis to a deeper comprehension of customer sentiment and behavior.

This podcast from Prosper Insights & Analytics presents findings from their June 2025 Consumer Snapshot, which gathers information from over 8,000 U.S. participants to understand consumer behavior and purchase intentions. The data indicates a cautiously improving yet still apprehensive consumer environment, with a slight increase in confidence but persistent inflation fatigue, particularly concerning dining out. Consumers are becoming more practical and realistic in their spending, prioritizing needs and coping with price increases by seeking sales and store brands. While major purchase plans remain flat, subscription services like Walmart+ and Amazon Prime continue to grow, highlighting a consumer focus on value and convenience amidst economic uncertainty.

AI, Privacy, and Data Protection Technologies.

This podcast discusses the critical issue of Generative AI's struggle with data privacy, highlighting how its reliance on vast datasets makes it vulnerable to privacy breaches.

Gary Drenik, a Forbes contributor and co-founder of Prosper Insights & Analytics, features insights from Kurt Rohloff of Duality Technologies, who emphasizes that current GenAIsystems lack sufficient privacy architecture for regulatory realities.

The podcast points to real-world concerns, such as the proposed ban of the DeepSeek AI platform due to data routing to China, and consumer apprehension regarding AI's use of their data. It advocates for Privacy-EnhancingTechnologies (PETs), specifically Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), as a solution to process encrypted data without decryption, ensuring confidentiality and compliance in sensitive sectors like healthcare and finance.

Ultimately, the piece calls for a proactive, built-in approach to privacy in AI development rather than reactiveregulation.

The $100 Billion Illusion - Why Data, Not Hype, Will Drive AI ROI
This podcast covers a Forbes article by Gary Drenik that questions the current perception of a booming $100 billion generative AI market, suggesting it's more hype than reality for most companies. According to the author and expert Stephen Klein, many AI initiatives are costly experiments fueled by fear and the desire for the appearance of innovation, rather than solving real business problems or generating revenue. The core argument is thatthe true value in AI comes not from the technology itself, but from high-quality, human-provided data, such as zero-party data, which can accurately predict future outcomes. Examples are given of how this kind of data has been used to forecast retail revenues and inflation rates with high accuracy, contrasting with failed AI projects built on poor data. Ultimately, meaningful AI returns will be achieved by leveraging good data to address genuine challenges, rather than chasing the latest models.

This analysis of the Prosper Insights & Analytics May 2025 consumer survey shows a slight increase in economic confidence, indicating easing concerns about inflation. Fewer consumers reported their standard of livingdecreasing, and awareness of price hikes declined across various categories, especially gasoline.While overall spending remained steady, consumers were less focused on only necessary or practical purchases, suggesting a shift towards discretionary spending as summer approaches. Membership in Amazon Prime and Walmart+ continued to grow, highlighting the ongoing appeal of cost-conscious convenience.

Unlocking AI Value with Data in 2025.

Gary Drenik, a writer for Forbes and co-founder of Prosper Insights & Analytics, discusses how artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving in 2025 beyond its foundational infrastructure. The article highlights a significant shift towards two new critical layers: the application layer, which focuses on integrating AI into specific business processes and industries with a move towards pre-built solutions, and the data infrastructure layer, emphasizing the crucial role of high-quality data in fueling effective AI. The article also notes the substantial increase in venture funding for AI companies, particularly those in sectors impacted by AI, and points to the rise of agentic AI, which aims to automate complex end-to-end workflows, all underscored by the critical importance of reliable data quality for successful AI implementation.

AI's Fork In The Road, Big Data Or High Quality Data
This Forbes article, authored by Gary Drenik, discusses the critical decision point for artificial intelligence, presenting a "fork in the road" between relying on vast amounts of data versus prioritizing high-quality, relevant data. The author highlights the challenges of using large datasets, including data quality issues, data becoming unavailable, and limitations in the reasoning abilities of large language models. Instead, the piece advocates for the advantages of utilizing high-quality, privacy-compliant data sources, such as zero-party consumer surveys from Prosper Insights & Analytics. Examples are provided demonstrating how this approach enables accurate forecasting for retail sales, economic indicators like CPI, and successful stock portfolio management, leading to improved outcomes and sustainability in AI projects.

The "April 2025 Consumer Snapshot" from Prosper Insights & Analytics, based on a large monthly survey, indicates a decline in consumer confidence to its lowest point in over a year amidst economic pressures. While awareness of price increases has lessened across categories, consumers are still actively seeking value through store brands and sales at retailers like Walmart and Target. Consequently, spending intentions have softened, with reduced plans for major purchases such as homes and cars, though home improvement plans saw an increase. Despite fluctuating gas prices influencing some spending adjustments, overall consumer happiness remains stable. The data suggests a cautious consumer prioritizing value, leading to recommendations for retailers to emphasize promotions and highlighting potential opportunities for investors in essential goods and home improvement sectors.

AI and the Next 25 Years of Culture & Tech. This Forbes briefing covers a Forbes article by Gary Drenik from Prosper Insights & Analytics which anticipates significant cultural and technological shifts over the next 25 years, largely driven by generative AI. The article highhlights how Gen AI is expected to alleviate digital fatigue by enabling more human-centered and sustainable experiences across various sectors. Agentic AI could revolutionize customer loyalty and commerce through personalized, conversational interactions, while AI and biodesign will likely transform supply chains towards circularity. Furthermore, the analysis suggests AI will evolve into an active collaborator in areas like healthcare and decision-making, and the boundaries between physical and digital realms will increasingly blur, leading to more seamless and transparent user experiences.