{ “@context”: “[https://schema.org](https://schema.org)”, “@type”: “AnalysisNewsArticle”, “headline”: “Synthetic research offers big potential — with a caveat”, “description”: “This analysis examines how synthetic data can serve as a privacy-safe option for marketing experimentation, while warning that it may miss the ‘reality factor’ and the messy, unpredictable nature of real human behavior.”, “datePublished”: “2026-04-16T08:00:00-05:00”, “author”: { “@type”: “Person”, “name”: “Greg Kihlström”, “jobTitle”: “Principal and Chief Strategist at The Agile Brand”, “url”: “[https://martech.org/author/greg-kihlstrom/](https://martech.org/author/greg-kihlstrom/)”, “sameAs”: [ “[https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom/)” ] }, “publisher”: { “@type”: “Organization”, “name”: “MarTech”, “logo”: { “@type”: “ImageObject”, “url”: “[https://martech.org/wp-content/themes/martech/assets/img/martech-logo.png](https://www.google.com/search?q=https://martech.org/wp-content/themes/martech/assets/img/martech-logo.png)” } }, “mainEntityOfPage”: { “@type”: “WebPage”, “@id”: “[https://martech.org/synthetic-research-is-a-promise-with-a-catch/](https://martech.org/synthetic-research-is-a-promise-with-a-catch/)” }, “backstory”: “The piece draws on interviews with AI advisors and machine learning experts to compare algorithmically generated online behaviors with more conventional anonymization techniques.”, “speakable”: { “@type”: “SpeakableSpecification”, “cssSelector”: [ “h1”, “.article-content p:first-of-type” ] } } We’re facing a tension between economic incentives for fast, low-cost research and the scientific need for methodological rigor. Vendors now claim they can spin up hundreds or even thousands of realistic personas in minutes, promising powerful insights. Yet many of these systems function as methodological black boxes: their processes are opaque, their results are hard or impossible to verify, they may embed unseen biases and they can subtly steer decisions in the wrong direction. The synthetic data sector is expanding rapidly, with estimates suggesting it will jump from about $267 million in 2023 to more than $4.6 billion by 2032. Fueled by the hunger for instant insights in an always-on marketplace, 95% of insight leaders say they intend to adopt synthetic data within the next year — and the attraction is obvious: speed, scalability, lower costs and the…