Ethics, Current State of AI and Further Solutions: Inside SixthFactor Consulting’s Insightful Research-Centric AI Workshop for Marketing Leaders

Dubai, UAE, October 15, 2025 – SixthFactor Consulting, one of the region’s leading market research and behavioral insights firms, hosted an exclusive workshop on "Research-Centric AI: Transforming Insight and Intelligence” at the JW Marriott Marquis, Business Bay on Thursday, 9th October. The invitation-only session brought together senior marketing, research, and consumer insight professionals for a deep dive into how artificial intelligence is reshaping the research landscape from predictive analytics and cultural intelligence to ethical governance and data management.

The half-day event featured an esteemed lineup of speakers including Himanshu Vashishtha, CEO of SixthFactor Consulting; Prashant Agarwal, AI Transformation & Growth Strategy Leader, B-School Professor of Practice; Faisal Khan, Specialist in AI-Enabled Consumer Intelligence, Head of TheSixth.AI; Richa Rai, Design Anthropologist; Aruni Ghosh, Chief Innovation Officer, SixthFactor Consulting; and Professor Melodena Stephens, Academic and Strategist in AI Ethics and Agile Governance.

A Timely Dialogue on AI’s Role in Research and Marketing

Opening the session, Prashant Agarwal traced the evolution of AI from its early conception in 1955 to the post-ChatGPT era that triggered a “strategic wake-up moment” for organizations worldwide. Highlighting 2022 as a pivotal year of “systematic shifts,” Mr. Agarwal outlined trends such as the rise of agentic AI, no-code application development, and AI-driven search optimization (AEO). He also discussed the emergence of “Agent Commerce,” where autonomous AI systems now execute web actions such as booking, purchasing, and completing transactions end-to-end -  compressing the discovery-to-checkout journey into a single conversational flow.

Mr. Agarwal’s insights were reinforced through real-world case studies, including Ecoville, a campaign where AI autonomously designed advertising creatives, logo, and layout - underscoring the technology’s growing creative and operational capabilities.

AI as an Enabler, Not a Destination

Faisal Khan, who leads SixthFactor’s AI research arm TheSixth.AI, emphasized that “AI is not the destination - it’s an enabler for research done right.” His presentation focused on the critical need to align AI tools with business objectives, ensure data transparency and maintain analytical depth.

He cautioned against the “mirage of depth” - the illusion of insight generated by unverified or text-only AI models and outlined the foundational principles of research-centric AI: business alignment, data integrity, contextual rigor, and balanced synthesis. Mr. Khan further demonstrated how predictive AI can integrate diverse data streams from social and review platforms to first-party assets - to build real-time sentiment, visibility, and share-of-voice maps for brands.

Cultural Intelligence and the Human Lens

In her session on AI for Culturally Informed Marketing, Richa Rai explored how brands can blend qualitative depth with technological scale. She cautioned that over-reliance on AI could lead to “too much data and too little meaning,” advocating for a hybrid model that combines human empathy with machine consistency.

Introducing Sixth Culture Scape, Ms. Rai outlined six dimensions for culturally grounded insight generation - qualitative rigor, semiotic analysis, human lens, contextual intelligence, analytical frameworks and design-thinking outputs - all enhanced through AI’s speed and scalability. She also announced SixthFactor’s upcoming podcast series along with Mr. Himanshu Vashishtha, which will explore emerging intersections between culture, AI, and design.

Building Continuous, Insight-Driven Data Ecosystems

Aruni Ghosh addressed how organizations can transition from static, report-based analytics to dynamic, AI-powered insight systems. His talk, Creating Data Repositories for Continuous Insights, examined the key priorities of modern CEOs - speed, foresight, and connected intelligence and introduced four archetypes of AI users: tool tinkerers, scaling practitioners, enterprise integrators and frontier agents.

He underscored the strategic importance of data ownership, urging firms to manage and enrich their proprietary data ecosystems rather than depend solely on third-party tools or generative AI models.

The Ethics Imperative

Concluding the workshop, Professor Melodena Stephens highlighted that ethical AI governance is not a technical add-on but a strategic necessity. Her session unpacked the principles of responsible AI - refusal, exit, escalation, and traceability  and the critical role of corporate governance in preventing bias, safeguarding consumer trust, and ensuring transparency.

Ms. Stephens also discussed emerging concerns such as tainted market research (data bias and misinformation), the rise of untamed bots shaping social discourse and the alarming fact that machine identities now outnumber humans by a ratio of 82:1 as well as touching on what Anthropomorphism is and how it is affecting our world today. She emphasized that as AI becomes more agentic, organizations must prioritize auditability and ethical design to maintain reputational integrity and long-term value.

Insights from the Frontline of AI Transformation

Moderated by Himanshu Vashishtha, the session culminated in an open discussion that explored Agentic AI, AI governance, and the future of human-AI collaboration. Mr. Vashishtha whose three-decade career spans leadership roles at Nielsen and consulting for brands such as Pepsi, Unilever, Visa, and Google noted that “the next phase of research transformation will be defined not by access to data, but by how intelligently and ethically we use it.”

He added: “AI is amplifying our ability to decode human behavior at scale, but the responsibility remains human. True insight emerges when technology, behavioral science, and ethics converge.”

About SixthFactor

SixthFactor is one of the leading market research companies based in Dubai, UAE, with a specialised focus on behavioural economics - a powerful and often underutilised component of market research. By going beyond traditional data to uncover the “why” behind consumer actions, SixthFactor helps brands decode the drivers of real-world decision-making. With expertise in measuring not just what people say but what they actually do, SixthFactor delivers insights that are both actionable and deeply rooted in human behaviour.

To learn more, visit www.sixthfactor.com website.