Evolution for CitizenMe's On-Device Behavioural Tech

In London, the team responsible for the CitizenMe personal data exchange app have a new company, DataSapien, offering an AI platform which sits on mobile devices, providing behavioural data for consumer panel operators while ensuring sensitive personal information never leaves the handset.

CitizenMe was launched in 2016 as a mobile app allowing users to access their own smartphone and social media profile data, providing 'insights into their digital personality traits'; and the ability to exchange their data for cash rewards with brands. The company grew its base to some half million monthly active users, but has now been shuttered, with its on-device technology funnelled into the new company and 'rebuilt from the ground up' to create an enterprise SDK, DataSapien Device Native AI or DataSapien DNA.

The new platform is billed as an on-device alternative to VPN-based metering: The SDK embeds directly into a panel operator's existing mobile app, and collects and processes behavioural data on the respondent's device using small language models. The 'zero-party' data output from the device consists of 'inferences and insights', reviewed and approved by the individual participant. DataSapien says this approach addresses long-standing limitations of VPN metering, including battery drain, streaming app conflicts, and panellist churn, while giving access to personal context data including health, financial, lifestyle and location.

DataSapien is a pure technology provider - unlike some competitors it does not operate its own panel. The platform includes a no-code journey orchestrator for designing multi-step research experiences, on-device AI for real-time respondent segmentation, and a 'data veracity engine' cross-referencing information from sources including GPS, social accounts and verifiable credentials. DataSapien's architecture is also set up for future expansion, including the addition of on-device AI agents performing autonomous research tasks such as accompanied shopping and contextual diary studies.

'Until now, panel operators wanting passive behavioural measurement have had four options', says CEO StJohn Deakins (pictured), 'Build the technology themselves, acquire it, license it from a company that also runs a competing panel, or send their respondents to a third-party app. We built CitizenMe to half a million users, so we understand the trade-offs panels face between data depth and respondent experience. Device Native AI resolves that tension, and because intelligence runs on the device itself, it creates a foundation for deploying AI research agents directly on respondents' phones, which is where panel data collection is heading.'

The firm is online at www.datasapien.com .