Digital media overtook offline in spend, which attracted organised criminals and fraudsters because security and verification were still fairly nascent or going unused. The industry faced something of a dilemma – the bots got so bad there were billions of dollars disappearing into the ether every year. [2025 Dartmouth study, PNAS]Yes, the checks most research has leant on were beaten by this agent 998 times out of 1,000. I’ve spent a career around research panels, and Ekas has been operating for more than 50 years across both consumer and healthcare research. [Ekas, M3MR group data, 2025]None of this is an argument against AI in research because it is going to be an integral tool for us all going forward.