• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 14, 2023

NIQ Lab launched this week, signaling NielsenIQ’s readiness to integrate generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and other technology into its products and services. The lab will combine technology from eight of the companies it acquired during the past several years to further drive innovation.    

The division will focus on using AI for client-facing products to optimize coding, data modeling, and warehousing and taxonomy. Several products will launch in 2024, said Troy Treangen, the company's chief product officer, who is overseeing the technology.

“It’s a separate team from the core NIQ business that will drive innovation,” Treangen said. “It has its own product and loss statement.”

NIQ Labs combines a pool of about 400 engineers, data scientists, and technicians with specialized skills. This talent will serve as NIQ's dedicated innovation engine, focused on resolving internal, industry, and client challenges through cutting-edge technological solutions. They will work alongside about 3,000 engineers and about 700 data scientists who operate in NIQ’s broader business operations.  

Nielsen’s Global Consumer Business became a stand-alone company in January 2021, changing the name to NielsenIQ, which rebranded to NIQ in March of 2023.

NIQ for the past two years has invested more than $1 billion in operating investments in new data and capabilities to build a Full View of consumer shopping behavior.

NIQ has used AI in its technology for more than 20 years. The company couldn’t have grown as the industry shifted from brick and mortar to online without using AI as a fundamental engine, he said. In the past, AI was used as a “backend engine” for coding and more. AI now will be integrated into front-end user tools.

One of the user platforms that will integrate tools includes the Discover platform, the front end to all its global assets. With the introduction of NIQ Labs, the company announced its first new tool, NIQ Ask Arthur, a generative AI-based tool that will integrate into its Discover platform. All clients worldwide will receive updates at the same time.

The NIQ Ask Arthur tool provides AI-assisted global search and personalized recommendations based on key performance indicators and analytics. It offers conversational and detailed, yet simplified, reports and insights.

The tool will include an interactive conversational chatbot, but also the ability to tell clients what they should know that they don’t. When a client looks at analytics on the screen, the technology will help to interpret more rapidly what the data really means.

Internally, NIQ used the technology for simple use cases such as the composition of emails, meeting summaries, and other productivity tools. Then the group analyzed all the acronyms used internally to see if they could combine or streamline them.