Professional-Grade Market Research No Longer Requires a $20,000 Budget
LOS ANGELES, June 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Most organizations don’t lack ideas. They lack a practical way to test them before moving forward. SmartFocus.ai announced today the launch of its AI-powered virtual focus group platform, enabling organizations to evaluate and pressure-test ideas before committing significant time, money, and resources. What once required weeks of planning and research budgets often exceeding $20,000 can now be accomplished in minutes, with sessions starting at $99.
Each session produces a structured insights report with clear findings and recommendations, helping users make decisions with greater confidence. What was once practical only for organizations with dedicated research budgets is now accessible to teams of all sizes.
SmartFocus.ai also allows users to revisit focus groups after the initial session, transforming what has traditionally been a one-time research exercise into an ongoing strategic resource. Users can return at any time to ask follow-up questions and test revised concepts as their needs evolve.
SmartFocus.ai wasn’t created by a research firm or a software company. It was built by communications professionals who repeatedly faced the same challenge: important decisions often had to be made before there was enough time, budget, or justification for traditional research.
Co-founders Erik Deutsch and Stefan Pollack built SmartFocus.ai to make qualitative insights available earlier in the decision-making process, when they can have the greatest impact.
“We built SmartFocus.ai to close the gap between having a great idea and knowing if it will actually work,” said Erik Deutsch, co-founder of SmartFocus.ai. “Everyone has ideas, but too few get tested before they’re put into action. For most organizations, focus groups have been something only other people could afford. SmartFocus.ai puts that capability within reach.”
“I’ve been in communications for decades, and I can’t count the number of times a client had to make a consequential decision, a product name, a campaign, a crisis response, with nothing but gut instinct and internal consensus to go on. Not because they didn’t want better information, but because the alternative cost $20,000 and took three weeks. SmartFocus exists because that tradeoff was never acceptable to us, and we finally had the tools to eliminate it,” said Stefan Pollack, co-founder of SmartFocus.ai. “SmartFocus.ai is the difference between taking an educated guess and actually knowing.”
How It Works
SmartFocus.ai uses artificial intelligence to replicate the experience of a professional focus group. Users simply describe what they want to evaluate, whether it’s a marketing campaign, product concept, strategic initiative, executive message, subject-matter question, or any other important decision.
The platform creates a custom virtual focus group with tailored, scenario-aware personas that represent audience members or subject-matter experts. An intelligent moderator then leads a real-time discussion, asking questions, probing for insights, and facilitating interaction among participants, much like a traditional focus group.
The personas are knowledgeable about current events, cultural trends, and the broader context in which decisions are made. This enables discussions to surface insights that reflect how real audiences actually think and react. Users can observe the session and ask follow-up questions, or sit back and allow the moderator to conduct the discussion independently.
At the end of each session, SmartFocus.ai generates a structured report with actionable insights, recommendations, and key takeaways. The report helps users understand not only what the personas revealed, but also what drove those responses.
To help users get started quickly, SmartFocus.ai includes FocusFox, an in-platform guide that walks them through the focus group setup process.
Pricing and Plans
SmartFocus.ai offers transparent pricing starting at $99 for a single focus group session. Monthly subscription plans range from $149 to $449, with discounted annual options available. Plans scale from individual users to teams and larger organizations, with subscription tiers that add capabilities, such as the ability to save and revisit focus groups.
SmartFocus.ai vs. Traditional Focus Groups: A Different Approach
Traditional focus groups require recruiting real participants, securing a facility, hiring a moderator, and waiting weeks for results. SmartFocus.ai takes a different approach, using AI-generated personas to conduct structured, moderated discussions that deliver results in minutes. Personas are calibrated to specific demographic, psychographic, and scenario-specific profiles. The insights they produce are grounded in how real audiences are likely to respond, not gut instinct or groupthink.
Built for Modern Decision-Makers
SmartFocus.ai is built for organizations that have historically been locked out of qualitative research due to cost and complexity. It gives independent agencies, brands, campaigns, nonprofits, startups, and other organizations access to professional-grade insights.
The communications industry is already moving in this direction, and SmartFocus.ai is designed for where it’s headed. According to the 2026 USC Annenberg Global Communication Report, 37% of PR professionals now identify testing messages with synthetic audiences as a high-impact priority for the next five years, reflecting a fundamental shift in how the industry approaches audience intelligence. SmartFocus.ai is the purpose-built platform for that shift. Developed by communications professionals, it makes synthetic audience testing fast, accessible, and actionable for organizations of all sizes.
About SmartFocus.ai
SmartFocus.ai is an AI-powered virtual focus group platform that delivers fast, professional-grade qualitative insights from simulated audiences and experts on demand. The platform conducts moderated discussions in real time and generates structured insights reports with key takeaways and actionable recommendations. Users can revisit focus groups over time, transforming what has traditionally been a one-time research exercise into an ongoing strategic resource. SmartFocus.ai was founded by communications professionals Erik Deutsch and Stefan Pollack to make professional-grade insight accessible to organizations of all sizes. Plans start at $99 for a single session. The company was developed with support from Microsoft for Startups. SmartFocus.ai is headquartered in Los Angeles. Follow us @GetSmartFocus on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube. Learn more at smartfocus.ai.
For SmartFocus.ai
Contact: Jessie Peng
hello@smartfocus.ai
