GMO Research & AI to showcase APAC panels at ESOMAR Congress 2026

GMO Research & AI will exhibit at ESOMAR Congress 2026 in Valencia from Sept. 1-4, where it plans to highlight its consumer panels across Asia-Pacific, an AI Interview Panel for Japan and South Korea, and a new Adaptive Quality Control system. The company is positioning the booth as a way for research buyers to assess multi-market feasibility and quality controls in one place.

Why it matters: - Research buyers working across Asia-Pacific often have to manage separate panel providers, quality standards, privacy rules and operational norms market by market. - GMO Research & AI is pitching a single-contract approach across APAC markets, which could shorten setup time before fieldwork starts. - The company is also showing tools aimed at improving respondent quality before surveys launch, not just after data cleaning.

What happened: - GMO Research & AI said it will exhibit at ESOMAR Congress 2026 from Sept. 1-4 at the Palacio de Congresos Valencia in Valencia, Spain. - The company will be at Booth 11. - The booth will feature the AI Interview Panel for Japan and South Korea, consumer panels across Asia-Pacific and Adaptive Quality Control.

The details: - The AI Interview Panel is built for AI-moderated qualitative research. - The panel supports text, audio and video interview modes. - All participants complete identity verification before joining. - Membership is limited to people who have consented to AI-moderated interviews. - The AI Interview Panel currently covers Japan and South Korea, with additional markets planned. - As of July 2026, GMO Research & AI lists panelists in Japan at 37,519,000. - Other listed market sizes are Indonesia at 3,188,000; South Korea at 1,621,000; Malaysia at 1,445,000; Thailand at 1,047,000; India at 856,000; the Philippines at 445,000; Vietnam at 203,000; Australia at 183,000; Singapore at 50,000; and New Zealand at 12,000. - The company says more details are available in its Panel Book. - Six ASEAN markets — Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore — can be fielded together under one contract. - Adaptive Quality Control uses Behavioral Scoring to track response integrity beyond demographic data. - Behavioral Scoring blocks low-scoring respondents before survey entry. - The system extends existing controls for fraudulent and duplicate survey responses. - Those controls include Ghost Completes detection, straight-lining checks, bot and speeder detection, duplicate management by cookie and email address, and trap questions. - The company says the new screening approach moves quality checks ahead of fieldwork instead of relying only on post-survey data cleaning. - GMO Research & AI says panel operations are tailored to local regulations and market practice in each country. - The company holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, P-Mark certification and published ESOMAR 37 and ESOMAR 20 answers. - Visitors can bring a study plan, including target markets, incidence rate and required sample size, and get a feasibility indication at the booth. - The event website is ESOMAR Congress 2026.

Between the lines: - GMO Research & AI is emphasizing scale and standardization at a time when cross-border research work can slow down because of fragmented vendor setups. - The focus on AI-moderated interviewing suggests the company sees qualitative research workflows becoming more automated and more operationally complex. - Moving quality screening upstream is a notable shift because it can reduce wasted sample and downstream cleaning work.

What's next: - GMO Research & AI will present the offering in Valencia during the congress dates. - The company says additional markets for the AI Interview Panel are planned. - Research buyers attending Booth 11 can ask for live feasibility checks on active or planned studies.

The bottom line: - GMO Research & AI is using ESOMAR Congress 2026 to sell a broader APAC research platform built around scale, quality control and AI-ready qualitative recruitment.