Episode Overview

Hakan Yurdakul, CEO of Bolt Insight, discusses AI-native research, dynamic personas, and how conversational AI is transforming market research.

Episode Highlights

• Pioneer in AI Research: Bolt Insight created the world’s first AI-native conversational research platform, predating the ChatGPT boom by training proprietary models on human-moderated interviews
• Human + AI Approach: How combining human expertise with AI technology creates better research outcomes, moving beyond simple correlation to understand causality in consumer insights
• Dynamic Personas Revolution: Moving beyond static synthetic personas to “live personas” that are continuously updated with fresh consumer interviews and market trends
• Corporate Memory Solution: AI agents serving as institutional memory banks, connecting sales data, historical research, and new insights to prevent repeated mistakes and improve innovation success rates
• Entrepreneurial Journey: Transitioning from 15 years at Unilever to founding a successful AI research company, with lessons on networking and moving outside comfort zones
• Future of Research: The shift from traditional qual vs quant methodologies toward hybrid, conversational research that brings human empathy back to consumer understanding

About the Guest

Hakan Yurdakul is the co-founder and CEO of Bolt Insight, an AI-native research firm. A Harvard graduate with 15 years of experience at Unilever as a consumer marketeer across FMCG categories, Hakan transitioned from corporate life to entrepreneurship to create research tools he wished he had in his corporate roles.

Along with co-founders from Ipsos and Nielsen backgrounds, he built Bolt Insight into a 60-person company serving 95% large enterprise clients across FMCG, finance, consulting, and technology sectors. The company operates globally with offices in North America, UK, France, Turkey, and Singapore.