The Research Revolution: MX8's Tom Weiss On AI’s Big Leap Forward

What happens when AI puts advanced research tools into the hands of startups and small brands? For Tom Weiss, Chief Product and Technology Officer of MX8—which recently launched MX8 Labs—it’s nothing short of a market reset.

In the latest from our Truth in Numbers series, CIMM Managing Director Jon Watts chats with Tom—an investor, advisor, and longtime force in media analytics—about how AI is transforming creative production, consumer insight, and the economics of research itself.

Jon Watts: Tom, welcome to Cannes. First off, what are you up to these days?

Tom Weiss: Thanks, Jon. That’s the one question I asked you not to ask! But seriously—I’m working with a couple of streaming services to help them use data more effectively. I’m also advising various market research firms and involved with a startup I invested in a few years back.

Jon Watts: So most of your work today has an AI angle?

Tom Weiss: Exactly. I’ve been working with large language models for about three years. The cost savings are significant, but more importantly, AI democratizes access. Smaller brands—like Allbirds—can now get consumer insights that used to be exclusive to giants like Nike.

Jon Watts: That really opens up the market—for creative, research, self-service platforms…

Tom Weiss: Right. Just like Google made everyone an advertiser, AI is making advanced tools available to microbusinesses. It’s a huge opportunity for challengers—and a threat to incumbents.

Jon Watts: Lower barriers mean more competition. The big guys will lose share.

Tom Weiss: Exactly. Take market research: traditional firms are huge, slow, and expensive. Now AI-native companies are offering faster, cheaper—often better—services. That kind of disruption is happening across the board.

Jon Watts: But doesn’t more content mean the good stuff gets lost?

Tom Weiss: We heard the same concern with YouTube. But is MrBeast any good? Millions would say yes. The next MrBeast might still be undiscovered. What matters isn’t how “good” something is in the abstract—it’s whether people consume it. Van Gogh didn’t sell a painting in his lifetime, but look at him now. Audience response is the real metric.

Jon Watts: Let’s go deeper into AI in market research. How does it compare to the old manual approach?

Tom Weiss: I invested in a company called MX8 Labs, run by Megan Daniels. Traditional research is slow and clunky—surveys written in Word, sent to programmers, tested, revised… it takes weeks. MX8 automates the entire process. Surveys are programmed, tested, fielded, and analyzed in days, not weeks.

Jon Watts: That’s a massive efficiency boost.

Tom Weiss: Exactly. Tim from Wunderkind said they can do 10 times more with MX8 than with their previous agency. No disrespect to the agency—but AI has transformed the economics of research.

Jon Watts: Do you see a tiered model emerging, where SMBs use AI and big brands still go high-end?

Tom Weiss: Yes. There's a concept called synthetic sampling—using AI to predict consumer reactions instead of asking real people. But that has limits. The most groundbreaking ads might get rejected by AI because they’re unfamiliar or unexpected. AI is great for fast hygiene checks, but deeper insight still needs real human input.

Jon Watts: Everyone in Cannes is talking about AI. Where are we in the hype cycle?

Tom Weiss: The core tech—transformer-based large language models—came out in 2017. So we’re five years in. The tech is mature. Costs are dropping. The real challenge is integration—getting it into legacy systems. Startups can rebuild from scratch. Salesforce can’t. So while the tech is ready, we’re still early in adoption.