The marketing landscape has undergone seismic shifts in recent years, with AI emerging as one of the most transformative forces. Businesses of all sizes - especially startups, scaleups, and challenger brands - are leveraging this technology to refine strategies, enhance targeting accuracy, and accelerate growth. In a recent discussion, Anastasia Laski, founder of Ground Control Research and creator of the AI-powered service Telemetry, shared invaluable insights into how businesses can harness AI for market research and strategy development. Below, we unpack the key takeaways from her expertise and explore how AI is revolutionizing the marketing process.
The Core of AI-Powered Market Research: Data-Driven Decisions
One of the most significant challenges businesses face is understanding their ideal customer and crafting a strategy around them. As highlighted by Laski, businesses often rely on assumptions, outdated customer profiles, or anecdotal insights to drive their marketing decisions. This guesswork leads to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and wasted resources - especially for startups operating on limited runways.
AI bridges this gap by providing fast, data-driven insights that replace intuition with facts. Laski emphasizes this as the foundation of her work at Ground Control Research, where AI enables companies to:
- Pinpoint their ideal target audience statistically and psychographically rather than through assumptions.
- Cut down the "test and iterate" phase of marketing campaigns, a necessity for cash-strapped startups.
- Build actionable, data-backed strategies that resonate with the right audiences and drive sustainable growth.
The key, as Laski underscores, is not just having data but knowing how to interpret it strategically to inform long-term marketing decisions.
Bridging the Gap: Why Startups Struggle with Target Market Clarity
Startups and even larger-scale growth companies frequently make the mistake of focusing on the customers they already have without considering where their future growth opportunities lie. Laski explains that companies often operate with a narrow, founder-led view of their audience, assuming that replicating their initial successes will lead to exponential growth. However, this approach limits scalability.
Instead, she suggests, businesses need to step back and reassess their target market by asking questions such as:
- Who are we currently reaching, and does this align with our long-term growth goals?
- What other audiences could benefit from our product or service, and how do their needs differ?
- How can we position ourselves to speak directly to these new groups without alienating our existing customers?
AI plays a pivotal role in answering these questions, enabling businesses to identify new markets with precision. Tools like Telemetry analyze demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data to uncover hidden opportunities and ensure companies are on the right path.
The Importance of Strategic Foundations: Why Guesswork Fails
One of the most impactful parts of Laski’s approach is her focus on strategic foundations. Many companies focus too quickly on tactical solutions - optimizing calls-to-action, rebranding visuals, or tweaking ad copy - without addressing the root cause of underperforming marketing efforts. In her words, these are often "symptoms" of a deeper issue: a lack of clarity around the target market and messaging.
For instance, brands frequently rely on internal brainstorming sessions or limited customer feedback to shape their campaigns. While these methods can yield ideas, they often lack the statistical backing needed to drive real results. Laski’s process, powered by AI, involves:
- Thoroughly documenting hypotheses about the target market and verifying them with data.
- Comparing the company’s current audience with the ideal market segments they should be pursuing.
- Identifying the core emotional drivers, pain points, and messaging strategies that will resonate with these segments.
These steps allow businesses to move beyond guesswork and create sharper, more effective strategies aligned with their customers’ needs.
The Power of AI in Accelerating Insights
One of the most exciting aspects of AI is its ability to streamline and speed up processes that were once labor-intensive. Laski shares how AI tools have transformed her workflow, particularly in areas such as strategic insights and custom research design. By automating administrative tasks - such as transcribing strategy sessions or summarizing key takeaways - AI frees up time for deeper analysis and creativity.
This efficiency isn’t just beneficial for consultancies like Ground Control Research - it’s a game-changer for any marketing team. Key benefits of AI in market research include:
- Faster insights: Instead of spending weeks gathering and analyzing data manually, AI can process vast amounts of information in minutes.
- Improved accuracy: By eliminating human error, AI ensures that data-driven decisions are built on reliable foundations.
- Customization at scale: AI-powered tools can quickly adapt research methodologies to the needs of individual clients, making insights more actionable.
For businesses, these advantages translate into quicker go-to-market strategies, reduced costs, and a greater focus on innovation.
Overcoming the Challenges of Being a Challenger Brand
Challenger brands - those operating in the shadow of industry giants - face unique hurdles. One of the most common mistakes they make, as Laski points out, is trying to emulate larger competitors’ marketing strategies. While it might seem logical to adopt the tactics of established players, this approach often results in diluted messaging and wasted resources.
Instead, challenger brands must lean into their unique value propositions and carve out a niche that resonates deeply with a specific audience. Central to this process is understanding why customers choose them over competitors and how to expand that appeal without overextending.
AI can help challenger brands:
- Identify overlooked or underserved market segments.
- Tailor messaging that differentiates them in a crowded marketplace.
- Test creative strategies quickly and efficiently to find the best-performing approaches.
By relying on facts rather than assumptions, challenger brands can confidently position themselves as disruptive forces in their industries.
Developing Marketing Leaders: The Role of Curiosity and Strategy
As the conversation with Laski concluded, she offered advice for up-and-coming marketers: develop your decision-making and strategic thinking skills. While AI is a powerful tool, it cannot replace the human ability to ask the right questions, connect the dots, and navigate the complexities of marketing. She stressed the importance of curiosity - being willing to explore, challenge assumptions, and learn from every situation.
For young marketers, this means actively seeking opportunities to observe and participate in strategic discussions. Pairing this hands-on learning with AI-powered tools can accelerate their growth, giving them a competitive edge in the industry.
Key Takeaways
- Data > Assumptions: AI-powered market research provides statistical clarity on customer profiles, helping businesses refine their strategies with precision.
- Beyond the Current Audience: Companies need to identify not only who their customers are today but also who they should target for future growth.
- Strategic Foundations Matter: Addressing root causes of underperforming campaigns - like unclear target markets - yields better long-term results than focusing only on tactical fixes.
- AI Accelerates Everything: From rapid insights to data-backed customization, AI enables faster, more accurate decision-making.
- Challenger Brands Must Differentiate: Challenger brands should avoid mimicking industry giants and instead focus on their unique value propositions.
- Curiosity Drives Leadership: Aspiring marketers should hone their curiosity and strategic thinking skills to navigate complex decision-making processes effectively.
Conclusion
AI is not just a tool - it’s a transformative enabler that allows businesses to redefine how they approach market research and marketing strategy. As Anastasia Laski’s work demonstrates, the power of AI lies in its ability to cut through noise, uncover actionable insights, and accelerate growth. For startups, scaleups, and challenger brands, embracing AI is no longer optional - it’s essential. By combining data-driven insights with human creativity and strategic thinking, businesses can chart a path toward success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Source: "AI and Marketing Insights: How AI Enabled Market Research Transforms Strategy" - ProRelevant's The Backstory on Marketing & AI, YouTube, Sep 1, 2025 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUvf2422gvI
Use: Embedded for reference. Brief quotes used for commentary/review.
