Shadowing Practice: How AI is helping brands identify consumer trends faster - Learn English Speaking with Video
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When you go grocery shopping, how do you decide which products to buy, especially when there's so much choice?
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Maybe it's how the product is packaged, or the ingredients, or maybe you've bought it before and it tastes great.
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Finding ways to attract consumers to packaged goods is the role of the global market research industry, worth an estimated $88 billion in 2024.
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The industry is expected to grow by By another $15 billion in the next four years, with artificial intelligences rise one of the major contributing factors.
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One company hoping to lead that disruption is AI palette.
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So AI palette helps the consumer package good companies to create products which their consumers will love.
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For example, a company wants to launch a new juice in a market like Thailand.
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Our platform will tell them what kind of juice they should launch,
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along with how they should position it so that it is successful in the market.
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And we do
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that using the power of artificial intelligence by analyzing the big data around food to identify what are the latest trends.
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Before co -founding AI Palette, Samsubra Gan Chowdhury worked in the fast -moving consumer goods industry
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and worked closely with some of the world's largest consumer packaged goods companies.
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The challenge that they always have is
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that consumer preferences are changing faster than ever before
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and they are not able to keep up or to understand and predict what will be popular say one year from now.
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That's when I first came across AI and machine learning.
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As I learned more about it, it became quite obvious to me that it's just a matter of time before AI impacts every industry.
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As AI development gathers pace, so does interest from investors.
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Venture capital firm 500
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Global invests in entrepreneurs who they believe are building game -changing companies.
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We caught up with them at Singapore Innovation Conference Switch.
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Younger entrepreneurs that we're investing in, companies are being rebuilt with AI in mind.
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It can, in an exponential fashion, reduce costs associated with day -to -day business activity
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that otherwise takes up a lot of time and requires a lot of people.
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One of the areas that we looked at was in the space of marketing, product design and creation, product research.
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Get to the market faster with more confidence that the product that you launch will be successful in the market.
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So today, for the companies to launch a product, it takes one to two years.
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And by the time they launch the product into the market, the consumer preferences would change significantly.
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Because the way it is done traditionally is by talking to a small sample of people, not only representative of that particular market.
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It only tells you the trends of today.
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AI Palette was founded in Singapore in 2018, and its AI platform has been up and running for the past four years.
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Its clients include major food and beverage brands Diageo, Nestle and PepsiCo, as well as Simrise,
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a company that works with brands to manufacture ingredients and products in taste, nutrition, health, scent and care.
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AI Palette knows very well the needs of companies like Simrise,
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so the platform, the capabilities are set up and established in the way
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that we would want to use them is very user -friendly.
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Data is pulled from many multiple different sources, so from social media, from online menus,
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from product data that is online, and this is something that's of a key need for a company like Simrise, that we're able to, let's say,
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easily synthesize what is happening in the marketplace and then interpret
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that and have an outcome that we can then present to our customers.
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consumer brand like Pringles they used our platform to understand the preferences for snacks across four different markets
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South Korea and Australia which are very matured and developed markets
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and then we have developing markets Thailand Indonesia
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so our AI helped them to understand flavor trends and this is
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that they launched quite a few products into the market
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AI palette has a three -pronged approach to its cross -sectional forecasting
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which includes 39 different factors to predict the future trajectory of a trend.
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So a trend would start in Sequoia, and it will come to Thailand, and that will go to Indonesia and Philippines.
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The other influences are in terms of like cross -category influence.
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So for example, like alcoholic beverages as a category takes a lot of inspiration from non -alcoholic beverages.
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And the final one is the generative AI, which helps us to create product concepts,
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incorporating the latest consumer trends and in a language which would resonate better with the consumers.
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What AI Pallet provides for us we could not do before, so it is something new.
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We still do traditional consumer research also.
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If the decision is a significant one, a large investment, we would also go back to the very same consumers and ask questions of them.
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Here in the labs behind me, we still have to taste the product because artificial intelligence cannot do that yet.
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Our job is not to replace the humans, but to make the lives of the humans better so
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that they can do their job faster and with a lot more confidence.
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The ground in AI is shifting very quickly.
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The technology advances at light speed with every few months that go by.
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This creates a lot of opportunities for startups to create
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because this uncertain ground is fertile for innovation but it also presents risks.
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We look at companies that are building resilient solutions.
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They're tackling big problems that no one is maybe looking at right now or have an innovative way to actually solve.
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So we think that ground is very, very right.
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It's often an overlooked area.
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So companies like AI Palette that take on a very specific sector, those are exactly the kind of companies that we like.
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Along with VC investors, AI Palette has had the backing of the Singapore government,
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which is committing more than three quarters of a billion dollars to AI development to strengthen its AI ecosystem.
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What they really loved was that we are trying to disrupt a very large and a traditional industry like the CPG industry.
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The companies are very traditional and there have not been much disruption.
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The plan is to expand into other types of CPGs, be it home care and also maybe pet care.
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We want to be synonymous with this particular category.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How AI is helping brands identify consumer trends faster”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: product, consumer, companies, palette, trend. This video has 54 sentences and 1082 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:34. The speaker talks at a natural 165 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| palette noun | /ˈpælɪt/ | A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes colours. |
| package noun | /ˈpæk.ɪd͡ʒ/ | Something which is packed, a parcel, a box, an envelope. |
| artificial adjective | /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/ | Man-made; made by humans; of artifice. |
| preference noun | /ˈpɹɛf(ə)ɹ(ə)ns/ | The selection of one thing or person over others (with the main adposition being "for" in relation to the thing or person, but possibly also "of") |
| beverage noun | /ˈbɛv(ə)ɹɪd͡ʒ/ | A liquid to consume; a drink, such as tea, coffee, liquor, beer, milk, juice, or a soft drink, often excluding water. |
| juice noun | /d͡ʒuːs/ | A liquid made from plant, especially fruit. |
| innovation noun | /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/ | The act of innovating; the introduction of something new, in customs, rites, etc. |
| invest verb | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in. |
| predict verb | /pɹɪˈdɪkt/ | To make a prediction: to forecast, foretell, or estimate a future event on the basis of knowledge and reasoning; to prophesy a future event on the basis of… |
| entrepreneur noun | /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/ | A person who sets up a business; generally, a person who owns and manages a business and assumes its financial risks. |
| investor noun | /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ | A person who invests money in order to make a profit. |
| alcoholic noun | /ˌæl.kəˈhɔ.lɪk/ | A person who is addicted to alcohol. |
| ingredient noun | /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/ | One of the substances present in a mixture, especially food. |
| disruption noun | /dɪsˈɹʌpʃən/ | An interruption to the regular flow or sequence of something. |
| establish verb | /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/ | To make stable or firm; to confirm. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
| take up verb | To pick up. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is packaged · is expected · was founded |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've bought · has been · has had |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 4 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, they're, you've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, synthesize /ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, disruption /dɪsˈɹʌpʃən/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/, alcoholic /ˌæl.kəˈhɔ.lɪk/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like palette, package, artificial.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.