Sentient Joins the Festival of NewMR 2026: Connecting AI Innovation with Human Understanding

The research industry is moving through one of its most interesting periods of change. AI is no longer simply being used to summarize data or accelerate individual research tasks. Researchers are now exploring synthetic data, digital twins, AI personas, computer vision, conversational analysis, and increasingly AI-enabled research workflows.

Those themes are at the center of the Festival of NewMR 2026, where Sentient’s Aaron Reid and Jeremy Clough will be presenting across two days of the virtual conference.

Innovation Day: Rethinking what is possible in research

Aaron Reid will take part in Innovation Day on November 18.

The program brings together researchers and innovators exploring some of the biggest changes happening across insights. Sessions announced by NewMR include AI-first research, System Zero and machine availability, synthetic data and future communities, behavioral fidelity in AI personas, digital twins, and the use of AI to observe real consumer behavior.

It is a conversation that closely connects with Sentient’s own view of where research is heading. As AI capabilities expand, the quality of the human understanding beneath them becomes increasingly important.

Showcase Day: Turning innovation into practical research tools

On November 19, Jeremy Clough will represent Sentient during Showcase Day.

While Innovation Day explores what is changing, Showcase Day focuses on what researchers can actually use. The fast-paced virtual event gives research companies an opportunity to demonstrate products, new capabilities, practical use cases, and approaches designed to help insights teams work faster and create greater impact. Each presentation is structured as a 10-minute showcase followed by five minutes of audience Q&A.