Consumer brands are under pressure to move faster, make smarter decisions, and reduce the risks of launching the wrong product. In response, a growing number of companies are turning to an emerging solution: Synthetic Humans, AI-generated digital consumers that mimic real behavior, preferences, and reactions.
In late 2024, Colgate-Palmolive revealed that it's using digital twins, virtual replicas of consumers powered by generative AI, to test product concepts before running live studies with actual users. This approach allows Colgate to filter early-stage ideas, cut down development time, and focus resources on the most promising directions (Reuters, 2024). In short: smarter decisions, made faster.
Academic research supports this shift. A 2025 study introduced PAARS (Persona-Aligned Agentic Retail Shoppers), a framework for creating synthetic shopping agents aligned to real demographic profiles. These agents simulate entire purchase journeys and enable automated A/B testing and retail experimentation, offering powerful predictive capabilities without the need for traditional fieldwork (arXiv, 2025).
At NextMinder, we see Synthetic Humans not as a replacement for consumer research, but as a force multiplier. By simulating audiences based on real-world data, brands can test campaigns, concepts, pricing, and positioning in hours, not weeks. It's a new paradigm that combines speed, scale, and strategic confidence.
If your team is still guessing, why not start simulating? Synthetic audiences are not the future. They're the now.
Reuters. (2024, December 10). Toothpaste maker Colgate testing new product ideas on 'digital twins'.https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/toothpaste-maker-colgate-testing-new-product-ideas-digital-twins-2024-12-10
PAARS (Persona-Aligned Agentic Retail Shoppers). (2025, March). Persona-aligned synthetic agents for retail simulations. arXiv preprint.https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.24228
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