The short version
David Boyle hosts the TMRE Insights Executive Retreat for Informa and LIONS: a day, off the record, for senior consumer-insight leaders from large brands. Each retreat is transcribed so that the host can write Chatham House compliant notes for the room. From the transcripts of six of them we drew 1,504 distinct points and coded every one into themes. The arc is clear. Talk about machines went from 1% of the discussion in San Antonio 2022 to 33% at its peak in Las Vegas 2025, then fell back to 20% in Denver 2026. In its place came the question the function has always asked, in a sharper form: how insight earns its seat where decisions are made. That rose from 14% in Las Vegas 2025 to 27% in Denver 2026.
Every retreat runs under the Chatham House rule: you may use what was said, never who said it. So this piece has no names, no companies and no session-by-session account. It counts what the room spent its time on.
The retreats
Each retreat has its own notes, written under the same rule.
The shape of it
The conversation falls into seven broad currents. Each panel shows one current's share of the day at each retreat. Hollow points are the one-hour virtual meet-up, which rests on few points. Shares are of what was discussed, not of time or of people.
The same shares as one flow. Each column is a retreat, each band a current sized by its share of the discussion. Switch to themes to see the detail, where dashed ribbons mark a later conversation that grew out of a different earlier one; click a theme to open it below.
The machines arrived, peaked, then gave way
Talk about putting machines to work took 1% of the discussion in San Antonio 2022 and 33% at its peak in Las Vegas 2025, then fell to 20% in Denver 2026. The fall is not just the agenda: in open discussion it went from 53% at Cannes to 37%, and in the opening introductions, where people say what is on their mind before any speaker, from 47% to 29%. Two things limit this: the Cannes and Denver rooms were different audiences four months apart, and one retreat is not a trend.
The chart below splits each current between what booked speakers put on the table and what the room raised in open discussion and the opening introductions. Pick a retreat.
The machine question changed from what the tools can do to what stays human
In Las Vegas 2025 the machine conversation was about the tools: checking generated answers took 6% of the discussion. By Denver 2026 that was 1%, and the largest machine theme was the division of labour between human expertise and automated work: 12% at Cannes and 8% in Denver 2026, against 4% in Las Vegas 2025.
A year ago the room asked what the tools could do. Now it asks what people should still do, and who answers when a machine acts.
The function's seat at the table came back as the question
How insight earns a place in decisions took 22% of the discussion in San Antonio 2022, slipped to 14% in Las Vegas 2025, then rose to 28% at Cannes and 27% in Denver 2026. Within it, the theme 'Insight at the decision table' reached 11% of the discussion in Denver 2026, its highest at any retreat.
The human side of the job went quiet
Building teams people thrive in was the biggest current in San Antonio 2022 at 29%; by Denver 2026 it was 6%. Wellbeing and flexibility went from 10% to 1%, inclusion from 8% to under 1%.
Back to the consumer
Getting closer to the truth reached 17% of the discussion in Denver 2026, its highest. What drove it was not fraud or synthetic data but the consumer: empathy and lived experience took 6%, the most at any retreat, alongside customer metrics (3%) and evidence standards (3%). 'Consumers' is among the words this retreat used more than any other.
What people arrived with
Each retreat opens with everyone saying one thing on their mind, before any speaker sets the agenda. Coded on their own, the introductions show what the room brought with it. Two retreats asked a different question, so they are set aside.
The mood
The stance of each point, weighted by how long the room stayed on it, from hopeful to anxious.
Every theme, every year
All 34 themes at once. Switch between share of the discussion, of points made, of words and of the day each theme touched.
Explore a theme
Words each retreat used more than the others
The words and phrases each retreat used more than the others did.
What this means for insight leaders
- Stop treating AI as the agenda item. The room has moved on to what the function is for. Bring the operating questions: who decides, who checks, who answers for it.
- Earn the seat with the decision, not the deck. The rising theme is insight at the decision table. Frame work around the choice it changes.
- Protect the human side on purpose. Wellbeing, inclusion and career talk faded from the room as machines arrived. That happened by default, and it is a risk.
- Go back to the consumer. Empathy and lived experience reached their highest share in Denver 2026. Speed freed time; spend it with people.
Built from the transcripts made at each TMRE Executive Retreat so that its host, David Boyle, could write Chatham House compliant notes for the room.