This is an exciting week for us at GWI as we’ve launched Agent Spark, our new insight analyst that gives fast insights through natural language, inside the GWI platform or in AI tools you might be using.
We’ve spent quite a bit of time playing around with it and so we’re debuting a new section this week - which shows just one example of how plugging in real human insights into AI workflows can help you understand your audience a whole lot better. Scroll down to find out more.
Stats to power your week
💲After years of speculation, OpenAI has pulled the trigger and announced the introduction of ads to the free and low-cost tiers of ChatGPT. When we asked consumers how they felt about this prospect back in 2023, 40% indicated they were comfortable with seeing ads in AI tools, lower than using AI for support in therapy (50%) but higher than having an AI agent take action on one’s behalf (26%). GWI Zeitgeist
🍺 Why do people drink non-alcoholic beer? There’s one obvious reason - it doesn’t contain alcohol - but beyond that, the biggest motivations are comfort, relaxation, and quenching thirst. For regular beer, the drivers are more about relaxation and taste. “Low and no” might struggle to compete on taste, but it could win on function. GWI Alcohol
📵Around 1 in 5 consumers worldwide say they’re trying to spend less time on social media than they used to, and this is fairly consistent across age groups. What differs is why - younger audiences are more likely to mention feeling anxious or wanting to protect their wellbeing, while older audiences seem to do it for more practical reasons. GWI Core
💰Will no-one stand up for the billionaires? The super-rich are constantly in the political firing line (just look at California’s proposed new “billionaire tax”), and three-quarters of consumers think billionaires should contribute more to social welfare. Fun fact: this is true for both low and high earners.
Meet the audience
Without GWI data
With GWI data
In this new section of our newsletter, we want to show that a picture is worth a thousand data points, using before-and-after examples to show how GWI data enriches your understanding of an audience with our new Agent Spark.
This week we’re looking at a very relevant one for January - the non-alcoholic beer drinker. They might look similar at first glance, but look closer. With GWI data in the mix, you can see they’re more Millennial than Gen Z, and often sit in a settled routine - long-term partner, a dog, and in some cases even a new baby. It’s also a more male-skewed audience than some “mindful drinking” stereotypes suggest.
Notice the Asics running shoes in the background as well. Health is on their mind, but they haven’t opted out of beer culture. They still want the ritual, and many still drink regular beer anyway, so the job is to deliver the same moment with fewer trade-offs. And it’s not just pub consumption to plan around - think watching midweek Champions League games on the sofa, a quick check of the fantasy team between sips, and keeping tomorrow intact.
Chart of the week
Surprising as it may be to anyone who remembers it being described as “the worst year ever” at the time, 2016 is having a moment. We explored the topic in some detail last year when it first bubbled up, but what have been the big headline changes for consumers’ lives since then?
Zooming out shows you just how much we’ve become absorbed in digital life, and how we’ve gone from PC-first to smartphone-first - with second-screening now almost universal. Smartwatches and smart TVs have also joined the mass market, while the last decade has been less kind to the cinema, search ads, and the alcohol industry.
More from GWI
If you’re looking to get up to speed with our new Agent Spark, here’s a webinar we recorded, doing a deep-dive into how to make it for you.
And you can sign up for tomorrow’s webinar, where special guests Pinterest will help us decode the big trends for 2026.
