Case Study: How Mastercard Uses Discuss AI Agents and Human Interviews to Close the Say–Do Gap
By Discuss
- case study
- AI Moderated Interviews
- AI Agents
- Real-Time Consumer Feedback
- Data Analytics
- Unified Data Analytics
The Mastercard Research Center, which delivers end-to-end market intelligence combining transactional data, consumer research, and payments expertise, faced three interconnected problems. Traditional research methods could not deliver in-depth insights at the speed and scale internal teams and external clients required. The persistent say-do gap in financial behaviour meant surface-level responses obscured true consumer motivations. Reliance on external vendors limited the team’s ownership of the research process and direct connection with consumers across global markets.
Mastercard partnered with Discuss to implement a single, self-service research platform combining AI-led and human-led interview capabilities. The team used Discuss’s Insights Agent to automate summarisation, quote extraction, and theme identification across recordings, transcripts, and uploaded research. Built-in compliance tools, including AI-led screeners and consent forms, handled regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions. An unlimited research model gave teams ongoing access to qualitative studies, while the centralised repository supported knowledge sharing across globally distributed teams in multiple languages.
Within three months, Mastercard brought over 250 clients into live consumer sessions, scaling research across nearly a dozen markets in eight languages. AI-powered analysis reduced the time from interviews to client-ready insights from hours to minutes, enabling faster and more confident product decisions. Research into Gen Z financial behaviour produced actionable findings that helped clients tailor products and messaging.
“We’re a small but mighty team. What we really want to do is focus on delivering the insights, not the busy work. And that’s where Discuss and its AI agents have been instrumental in helping us move faster and deliver, frankly, better products.” — Maria Rydzewski, Principal at Mastercard Data & Services
Read the full version of this case study on the Discuss website here.
