NIQ Insight Summit 2026

Understanding Today’s Consumer Reality

In today’s fast-changing economic and consumer environment, staying ahead of the curve is more vital than ever. This session dives into how evolving consumer behaviors, shifting market dynamics, and global economic forces are transforming the way brands engage with their audiences in 2025.

Join us for a forward-looking exploration of the latest insights, strategic innovations, and emerging trends that will shape successful brand strategies and consumer connections in the year ahead.

With Stéphanie Baaklini, Commercial Director Belgium, NIQ & Danny van den Burg, Commercial Director Netherlands, NIQ

From AI Piloting to business impact

AI is evolving from standalone pilots and chatbots into enterprise-wide capabilities that connect sales, service, supply chain, and retail. Organizations that successfully scale and integrate AI across their operations will be best positioned to improve decision-making, efficiency, and customer experiences. This session explores what it takes to move from AI experimentation to real business impact, supported by lessons from the FIFA World Cup 2026. The ability to scale and operationalize AI across the business is your key differentiator going forward.

With Jurgen Janssens, Executive Director & General Manager, Lenovo Benelux.

The Questions Behind the Growth: Understanding What Shoppers Really Want

Consumers are changing. Categories are evolving. And many of the assumptions manufacturers hold about shopper preferences no longer go unchallenged. In this session, Bonduelle and NielsenIQ share how they partnered to investigate fundamental questions about the vegetable category, from packaging formats and shopper needs to their perceptions of quality, convenience, value, and sustainability.

With Liesbeth Dufornee, Head of Category Development, Bonduelle & Max Linn, Strategic Analytics & Insights Business Partner Benelux, NIQ

Conversational Commerce: A Generational Shift, Already Underway 

Conversational commerce is a generational shift already underway, driven by the scale of everyday messaging between people and businesses and the arrival of AI agents on both sides. This session explores Europe’s position and opportunity, introduces WhatsApp Business and agentic AI, and provides a practical framework for designing an end-to-end messaging journey. It also examines the measurement gap created by this shift, why no single methodology can capture its full commercial impact, and how connected measurement can bring incrementality, holistic analysis and decision-making closer to the speed of the market.

With Harmjan Oldenbeuving, Client Partner, Meta & Peter Teekens, Global Industry Leader – Marketing Effectiveness, NIQ

Balancing data & human intelligence in a data-driven world 

Store density in Benelux is strong – and the average store is about the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Every retailer is fighting for in-store traffic, but shelf remains they key physical point of contact of shoppers & assortment, how can and should data be used to best build assortment & shelf in a way that makes available space competitive.

It’s all about balancing:

• balancing data (AI, datasharing) and human input
• balancing rationality (data-driven decision) and strategy (human-driven decision) (eg. assortment development towards more healthy for banner perception, assortment differentiation while still feeding turnover)
• balancing what shoppers say they want vs what actually sells
• balancing willingness to find a one-size-fit-all answer vs a one-per-store approach

How to avoid falling into the trap of “too much data kills data,” while maintaining a clear identity as both a retailer and a supplier?

With Ludivine Szlazak, Category Development Lead Benelux, Kellanova

The Next Era of Social Commerce

A first glance on Tiktok Shop’s market entry and how it’s Reshaping Discovery and Commerce Growth in the Benelux.

With Ningxin Wu, Industry Lead TikTok Shop Netherlands/Belgium/Poland & Niek van Leeuwen, E-Commerce Lead Benelux, NIQ

Optiq demo

NIQ Optiq transforms the way clients access insights. By combining NIQ’s trusted intelligence with advanced AI capabilities, it enables users to move from questions to answers in seconds. Rather than spending time searching through reports and dashboards, clients can engage with their data through a natural conversation, unlocking faster, more confident decision-making.

With Tom Offermans, Tom Kuepers, Noor Opstaele & Ann Renee, Analytical Consultants, NIQ

AI Qualitative Research

NIQ’s AI-powered qualitative research capabilities help businesses uncover deeper consumer insights faster and more effectively. Through a recent study on GLP-1 and its impact on consumer behavior, this demo demonstrates how advanced AI can enhance qualitative analysis, revealing richer consumer motivations and emerging trends while maintaining the rigor and expertise of traditional research methodologies.

With Joe Goyder, Global Head of Qualitative Research

Spaceman Merchandising

Discover how AI is reshaping space planning with NIQ Spaceman. By streamlining the creation of planograms and automating time-consuming processes, AI helps teams work more efficiently, respond more quickly to changing market needs, and optimize shelf performance with greater speed and precision.

With Steven van der Linde, Space Management Expert Team Leader Western Europe

Pictures