In a world where a viral TikTok video can catapult a brand into a global trend in just a few hours, the traditional market research cycle—often spanning 12 weeks—is becoming a liability.
The lag between the survey question and the responses from a broad (or targeted) pool of respondents has become a major bottleneck for Fortune 500 decision makers forced to respond to volatile geopolitical and economic changes, as they are often outdated by the time they reach the slide platform. industry experts have observed.
Brockthe predictive human intelligence startup recently announced a strategic funding round after a year in which it reported 10X revenue growth. Their proposal is as ambitious as it is technical: a "parallel universe" 60,000 digital twins populated with real, live people and all their demographic profiles and consumer preferences, allowing businesses to run unlimited experiences in hours, not months.
“These digital twins are one-to-one copies of real, real individuals." Brox CEO Hamish Brocklebank said in a recent video call interview with VentureBeat. "We hire real people like a regular panel company, pay them to interview them, and capture all the information around them – with full consent.”
Currently a lean operation of 14 people, the company defines itself as the antithesis of that operation "crazy" research industry. By replacing statistical models with behavioral replicas, Brox aims to transform how the world’s largest banks and pharmaceutical giants anticipate human reactions to high-risk global and market-changing events, or narrow, targeted product launches and HR news, and everything in between.
The types of requests and specific questions that Brox asks its digital twins are completely open and can be tailored to any business customer’s use cases and goals.
According to Brocklebank, examples of poll questions include: “What if America invades Iran or Greenland? Will depositors at Bank of America put more money into their accounts or take more money out? Or in pharmaceuticals, if RFK Jr. says something next week, will it make people more likely or less likely to get vaccinated?”
Not synthetic humans – AI copies of real ones
The main differentiator of Brox technology is the fidelity of its input data.
Although there are many competitors "digital audience" space is based purely on synthetic identities—the generic identities generated by Large Language Models (LLMs)—which Brocklebank argues that these techniques inevitably produce. "AI bending".
Purely synthetic audiences often cluster around dense distribution of responses, over-indexing "correct" or "healthy" behaviors (such as eating broccoli) due to biases inherent in basic models.
Brox’s "Digital Twins" Instead, they are one-on-one behavioral copies of real individuals who have been hired and interviewed in full depth. The process is intensive:
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In-depth interviews: The company conducts hours of real and AI-based interviews with each participant.
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Psychological depth: It seeks to understand the basis of data collection "decision drivers," including parenting, relationship and even marital stability.
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Data Density: For some twins, Brox stores up to 300 pages of textual information representing what he calls Brocklebank. "the most in-depth per capita data set available".
to solve "black box" A common problem in AI, Brox a "chain of reasoning" for its predictive implications. When a digital twin predicts a reaction—for example, how a person with a net worth of $2 billion might react to a particular interest rate increase—the model introspects and provides a step-by-step explanation for that decision.
This allows customers to not only understand what will happen but the underlying psychology why is happening.
Scaling "without scale" interview
The product offering is currently available in the US, UK, Japan and Turkey. Brox has successfully digitized specific, high-value cohorts that have traditionally been difficult for researchers.
This includes a panel "high net worth" individuals (worth more than $5 million) and specialized medical professionals such as dermatologists, including a multi-billionaire.
However, the greatest value to customers is likely to be the aggregate population of middle- and low-income individuals who can be mass-surveyed and/or segmented by demographics, particularly those with more limited purchasing power and decision-making power and a more limited market.
One of the more unique aspects of the Brox platform is its incentive structure. Geminis are in frequent contact with their real-world counterparts to ensure they stay current.
For high-net-worth individuals not motivated by small cash payouts, Brox issued Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs), essentially making these participants. "investors" ensuring that they continue to provide high-fidelity personal updates on the company’s success. The use cases of the platform are currently focused on two main sectors:
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Pharmacy: Predicting vaccine hesitancy or how doctors might respond to new biologics based on the changing political climate.
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Finance: Simulating how depositors at major banks might move funds in response to geopolitical events such as conflicts in the Middle East.
As for why going to the trouble of interviewing and digitally cloning real people instead of using LLM and other AI models to create entirely fictional, synthetic audience characters and personas, Brocklebank offered his perspective.
“You could generate 10,000 true synthetic digital twins, but the answers would still be normalized into a very tight distribution, which is not realistic when you actually ask real people." Brocklebank said.
By maintaining a pre-built audience of 60,000 twins, the company allows clients to skip the recruitment phase of the study. A major US bank or a global pharmaceutical giant can now "request" study the digital population and get a verified analysis within hours.
Pricing and Availability
Unlike traditional research firms that charge on a per-project or per-respondent basis, Brox operates as a high-end software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform with an enterprise-level commercial license. The company avoids it "the seat" or "use" constraints that often hinder rapid experimentation in large organizations.
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Grade levels: Subscriptions are sold as a full payment, starting at a minimum price $100,000 a year.
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Top tier contracts: For larger deployments involving multiple teams and global data, contracts scale up $1.5 million per year.
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Usage rights: It is given to customers unlimited use during the contract period. This allows them to run thousands of simulations without worrying about additional costs, encouraging culture. "to try everything" before deployment.
From a legal and privacy perspective, digital twins build on one "based on full consent" frame. While the twins can be traced back to real human data for internal verification, the platform is designed to provide aggregated behavioral insights that preserve the participants’ anonymity, preserving the predictive power of their digital counterparts.
Rejecting the rise of Kalshi, Polymarket and ‘prediction markets’
The technology industry has recently seen a surge in valuations and interest "prediction markets" such as PolyMarket and Kalshi, which allow users to bet on the outcome of various global events.
However, Brox’s management maintains a distinct distance from these platforms, citing a "personal disrespect" for betting markets, both morally and intellectually.
Brocklebank argues that betting markets are predictable results (e.g. winning an election), they offer zero benefit to business decision makers because they fail to deliver. "why".
Knowing that a particular candidate has a 60% chance of winning does not help a company adjust its consumer strategy; to know why a certain group of depositors feel uneasy.
Investors including Scribble Ventures, Wonder Ventures and Vela Partners backed it. "the first man" The approach to artificial intelligence is betting that the moat created by deep human data will be more sustainable than the commoditized models of synthetic data providers.
As Brox prepares to launch in the Middle East and APAC, the company is moving toward its ultimate goal: simulating the entire world. "parallel universe" for risk-free decision making.
