This training session was created for the Insight Consultant Group (ICG) as a Knowledge Share session for their independent consultants.

If you are relatively new to AI, this 45-minute session will help you get more out of the AI tools you’re already using, without needing to become a tech expert. You’ll learn:

• What different types of AI tools (like ChatGPT or Claude) can and can’t do, and how to pick the right one for the job

• Simple, repeatable ways to write prompts that give you better, more relevant answers

• How to fine-tune AI responses when they’re not quite right

• Easy ways to keep track of the prompts you’ve written, so you can reuse and improve them over time

This is a hands-on, interactive session for independent researchers who want to work faster, think more creatively, and make AI a more useful everyday tool.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• • Agatha Christie's AI-powered writing course

  • AI-generated avatars help marketplace sellers

  • The world’s longest train journey

  • Explainer: quiet cracking

  • The rise of "screen fatigue"

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Durex India's "The 🐔 Blocker"

• Slow travel

• AI-powered addiction recovery

• Explainer: Dirty Soda

• China's emerging plus-size modelling scene

I had a really enjoyable chat with Ray Poynteron his 'Talking AI' podcast about using LLMs for cultural insights.
His questions made me realise how we are all moving through the GenAI adoption curve at different speeds.
Working as an independent researcher forced me to find new ways to challenge my assumption, so I accelerated my own learning to use LLMs as a thinking partner.
And I very quickly realised that using Ai isn't about replacing human insight, but amplifying your ability to ask better questions when you don't have a team around you.

Labubu dolls have somehow convinced grown adults to hand over £15 for a mystery toy they might absolutely hate – and we're queuing up for more.

Using YouScan's social listening data, I mapped the conversations around mystery boxes. Consumers aren’t just buying products, they're buying emotional rollercoasters, micro-doses of hope, and escape from algorithmic predictability.

In a world obsessed with precision targeting, we're still hungry for serendipity.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Reddit's time spent is surging

• Gen Z's travel 'icks'

• Gen Alpha's influence on their parents' shopping

• Foreca$ter puts a dollar on Canada's snowfall

• The misunderstanding of gluten sensitivity