How The Times (U.K.) is using AI to model synthetic focus groups from human audiences
“Synthetic audiences” is a new term added to the media and advertising industry’s lexicon in 2025 – though British news publication The Times would prefer a different phrasing.
“I got very nervous when you used the words ‘synthetic audiences,’” said Tracy Yaverbaun, gm of The Times and Sunday Times, on stage for a live recording of the Digiday Podcast during last week’s Digiday Publishing Summit Europe. The publication’s preferred wording is “synthetic research.”
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