How Teneo used Artificial Societies to simulate 180,000+ human perspectives

What we were able to accomplish with Artificial Societies would simply have been impossible with traditional market research

Sparky Zivin
Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Teneo Research

Challenge

How should a major US company position their future technology narrative?

In late 2025, Artificial Societies supported Teneo on a confidential project for a major US company preparing to launch a bold new technology strategy.

The client needed confidence that their messaging would resonate with stakeholders before going public. But they faced a problem: the strategy was sensitive, the timeline was tight, and the audiences that mattered most were impossible to reach.

Critical Questions

  • How will different stakeholders react to our messaging?
  • Who are the true influencers driving the conversation?
  • Which media sources hold the most credibility?
  • What partnership opportunities should we explore?

Solution

Large-scale narrative testing across three artificial societies

The client needed to understand reactions from consumers, industry peers, and policymakers.

To achieve this, we built over 5,000 AI personas, grounded in real-world profiles and informed by social listening and deep qualitative research.

  • Washington D.C.
    A specialized society representing the policymakers, lobbyists, think tanks, and key political influencers within the U.S. capital. Together, they form the core machinery that drafts, interprets, and implements national policy.
    • 1,364 personas

We ran a series of surveys and experiments in each society to test reactions to six competing narratives.

Insights were captured at both an aggregate and individual persona level, enabling detailed analysis by audience segment and narrative.

Approval Ratings

Measuring general approval of technology narratives across different demographics and segments.

  • Approval Rating: 63%

Impact

A clear strategic roadmap backed by 189,756 unique responses

Artificial Societies delivered insights backed by 189,756 unique responses, derived from 30 deep-dive questions across 6 narratives.

We identified the strongest overall narrative and optimized messaging for each audience segment. Results were delivered through a written report and an interactive enterprise platform, allowing Teneo to explore approval scores, emotional sentiment, and verbatim reactions.

Traditional research would have taken months to gather the necessary depth of data. Artificial Societies delivered results in less than 3 weeks, with insights from audiences that would have otherwise been impossible to reach.

  • 5,000+ AI Personas Created
  • 189,756 Unique Responses
  • 3 weeks Start to Finish