Kids2 is betting that consumer insights will decide which brands win as Gen Z moves into parenthood, according to Rochelle Wainer, SVP of global insights and analytics at the company.

Wainer laid out her approach in an episode of Brave Commerce, hosted by Rachel Tipograph and Sarah Hofstetter. The conversation centered on a single premise: technology has changed how people research, shop and decide, and consumer research has to change with it.

At Kids2, Wainer's team combines three inputs — traditional research, behavioral data and emerging technology — to understand parents across generations. The goal is not data collection for its own sake. It is translation: turning what the company learns into concrete action across product development, marketing and retail.

"Consumer research needs to reflect how people actually make decisions," Wainer said, pointing to a decision process that now spans digital behaviors, social signals and real-world shopping experiences. In practice, that means studying the shopper journey across both digital and physical retail, not treating the two as separate worlds.

AI plays a growing role in that work. Wainer said AI and new sources of consumer data can help brands identify patterns and anticipate needs before shoppers articulate them. But she drew a clear line at automation for its own sake: human interpretation remains critical to turning those signals into action. The tools surface the pattern; people still decide what it means and what the business should do about it.

The urgency behind this shift is demographic. Gen Z is becoming a larger part of the parent population, and Wainer argued their expectations differ from those of previous generations in three areas: authenticity, digital experiences and value. Brands that assume millennials and Gen Z parents behave the same way, she suggested, are working from an outdated map.

For Kids2 — the company behind baby and infant brands — the stakes are direct. Parents of young children make frequent, high-consideration purchases across categories where trust matters. Understanding how a Gen Z parent researches a product on social platforms, evaluates price and then experiences the shelf or the unboxing is not an academic exercise. It determines where the company invests in product, media and retail partnerships.

Wainer's framework for other brands is straightforward. First, ground research in how decisions actually happen, from digital behavior to in-store experience. Second, use AI and new data sources to spot patterns early, but keep humans in the loop to interpret them. Third, treat generational change as a live variable — Gen Z parents' expectations around authenticity, digital experience and value require distinct responses, not recycled millennial playbooks.

The broader signal for marketers: the insights function is moving from measurement to anticipation. As Wainer's work at Kids2 shows, the brands that pair new data capabilities with human judgment — and update their assumptions as the parent population shifts — will be the ones positioned to meet the next generation of buyers where they actually are.