Capturing human data in the era of AI

I have always been fascinated by the things people do not say. That fascination became the foundation for my work with eye tracking, a method that reveals the unspoken truths behind behavior and drives better decisions for businesses, researchers, and designers. 

Seeing what people don’t say 

From my first encounter with Tobii technology, it felt like being handed a mirror into human reality. Eye tracking has never been about producing flashy heat maps. It has always been about the method. It is about stepping aside as a researcher so people can finally see, and speak, from their own experience. 

Why eye tracking matters 

Over the years, I have come to see eye tracking not as data, but as a kind of truth serum. When people watch their own gaze replay, they cannot make things up. Their eyes have already told the truth. What happens instead is that they explain it back. Often laughing, often surprised, always revealing more than they thought they knew. 

Eye tracking is not just a tool for researchers. At its heart, it helps people understand themselves and helps us understand each other. 

Facebook ads: Memory is unreliable 

We once ran a study with sixty people using Facebook. Each spent ten minutes scrolling on their phones as they normally would. 

At the end, we asked: “Did you look at any ads?” 

Every single person said, "No". 

Then we replayed their eye tracking videos. Every person had looked at the ads. 

Faced with their own replay, people explained exactly why they paused. The colors, the images, the headlines that drew them in. They were not lying before. They simply did not remember. 

And that is the funny part. If people cannot recall what they saw ten seconds earlier, how reliable is memory in something as serious as a courtroom? Forensic psychology must be shaky at times. Witnesses probably make up half of it without knowing. That is why eye tracking has even been tested in witness line-ups. The eyes reveal recognition long before the mouth admits it. 

For businesses, this experiment was a clear reminder that self-reported data is unreliable. Without eye tracking, every participant would have sworn they ignored the ads. With it, companies could see the truth of what caught attention and why. 

DBS Bank: Gaze insights shape strategy 

Another project that stands out was inside the DBS branch at Marina Bay Financial Centre. We were studying how people experienced the space, from merchandising to the long wait in line. 

Most participants were domestic workers and construction staff banking with POSB. They were shy, a little hesitant to be interviewed by a foreigner in the room. But once they put on the eye tracker, their attention shifted away from the interviewer and onto their own experience. 

Almost everyone looked at the TV first. It played on a four-minute loop. After four minutes, nobody looked again. 

That one simple insight reshaped DBS’s investment strategy. The bank could see that static video loops quickly lost impact, so they invested in producing higher-quality content and set up systems to stream fresh videos across all their branches. The eye tracking study gave them the evidence they needed to justify significant budget allocation, transforming how they communicated with customers in-branch. 

Lessons from COVID 

Before COVID, eye tracking was everywhere. McDonald’s drive-throughs, retail environments, banking apps, kids’ media. Clients did not need long reports. Watching two or three people was enough to spark change and, in many cases, trigger immediate design decisions. 

Then COVID stopped face-to-face work almost overnight. Remote testing grew rapidly, including webcam-based eye tracking, which opened new possibilities. Webcam studies work well for testing static images and digital experiences, and they make it easy to scale research across markets. 

But what COVID reminded me of was this: sometimes you need to be there. There are things you only uncover face-to-face. Standing in a store, waiting in a bank queue, sitting in a car, playing a game in real time. These are moments that cannot be simulated. Watching people in context gives you a different layer of truth about how they really experience the world, and those in-person studies often lead clients to make faster and more confident investments in improving service design. 

Now, post-COVID, I see a resurgence of in-person studies. The leading edge is in real-world contexts. Retail wayfinding, service design, Tobii Glasses in live environments. These are things that AI or a webcam cannot fully replicate. You can simulate a chat. You cannot simulate how someone navigates a space or decides in the moment. 

Eye tracking and AI together 

I believe in AI. It is the shortcut to the world’s information. AI can scan, summarize, and reflect patterns faster than any human. But AI alone cannot tell us why people see the world the way they do. 

That is where eye tracking comes in. The gaze connects us directly to the unconscious. It shows what draws us before we have time to think. When people replay their own gaze, they give depth and meaning no dataset can reach. 

Eye tracking on its own can be slow. AI on its own can be shallow. Together they create a new kind of inquiry. I use LLMs (Large Language Models) to scan vast fields of data, conversations, and cultural signals. It gives the breadth to see patterns and themes that would otherwise stay hidden. Eye tracking then brings depth, showing how people use things in real contexts and what captures their attention before they are even aware of it. 

This combination has already helped organizations redesign products, prioritize investments, and uncover misalignments between what customers say and what they do. 

Why method shapes insight 

One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that method matters more than data. The way you design a study shapes the results you get, influences how people behave, and frames the story you end up telling. If you do not stop and think about the method, the data you collect will mislead you. 

The famous Nielsen F-pattern is a reminder of this. That single heat map shaped an entire industry. It was powerful enough to influence how websites were designed and where advertising dollars were spent. That is the power of a single image. It captures attention, tells a story, and changes decisions. 

That is also the risk. A heat map can be misused if taken out of context, but it can also be transformative when used wisely. Its strength lies not in the image itself, but in the frame and the story you give it. 

Closing: Harnessing human insight in an AI-driven world 

Capturing human data in the era of AI matters because we need to dig deep into how someone sees reality, how their conscious and unconscious minds create it. If we do not speak to people, we are only making assumptions. And if we are only making assumptions, how can we possibly be correct? 

Eye tracking shows us what people do not remember. AI gives us reach and scale. Together, they remind us that human truth comes from presence, from seeing and hearing people in the moments that matter. 

For me, it always comes back to this: I want to help people understand themselves more deeply, and I want to help people understand each other. That has always been the point. 

So, my call to you is simple. Do not settle for assumptions. Do not rely only on what is easy to collect.

Watch people. Listen to them. Replay their gaze.  

Because when you do, you will see what they never said and what they might never have known without it. 

Objective Eye Tracking has been Tobii’s reseller in Australia and New Zealand since 2007, helping organizations and researchers understand human behavior and intent with eye tracking.