First Insight, the predictive intelligence platform companies use to understand what customers are likely to choose before making significant commercial investments, has named Jim Gruskin Chief Executive Officer. Gruskin is a veteran executive who has spent three decades building and scaling enterprises with AI and data at their core. He succeeds First Insight founder Greg Petro.
First Insight combines direct feedback from real people with proprietary AI and predictive models to help companies determine where to invest, what to bring to market, what customers are willing to pay and what should change before capital is committed. Its platform provides forward-looking evidence for questions that historical sales data alone cannot answer. Gruskin will focus on scaling the company’s technology, expanding its reach across consumer-facing industries and making First Insight a more integral part of companies’ AI transformation and go-to-market workstreams, where decisions directly affect revenue, margin, inventory and market adoption.
Gruskin has spent his career as an executive, investment banker and investor, helping drive transformation and growth across multiple industries and completing more than 60 transactions totaling over $100 billion. He led Global Knowledge, one of the world’s largest technology training companies, and served on the executive team of its parent, Skillsoft, where he helped complete three strategic transactions. He previously held senior strategy and finance roles at Dex One and worked as a media and technology investment banker at Morgan Stanley as well as an investor at Prudential Capital. He holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Gruskin’s appointment comes as companies use generative AI to accelerate product creation and go-to-market execution. Generative AI can create more concepts, designs, offers and commercial possibilities, but alone it cannot reveal how real customers will respond or what they are most likely to choose. First Insight addresses that gap by applying its core machine-learning models to direct customer feedback, giving companies a forward-looking signal before they commit to development, pricing, inventory, promotion or a new customer experience. That signal has become more important as customer expectations and behaviors change faster across markets, generations and channels, making past performance a less reliable guide to what will happen next.
“What attracted me to First Insight was not simply its technology. It was the combination of nearly two decades of predictive modeling, direct feedback from real people and proof that better customer evidence can change where a company invests,” said Gruskin. “That foundation is difficult to replicate, and it has become more valuable as customer behavior changes faster, companies face more choices and leaders face greater pressure to produce measurable returns from AI and make decisions quickly, with little margin for error.”
“Our next chapter is about building on what our customers already rely on, making that intelligence easier to use and bringing it into the workflows where consequential decisions are made. When the evidence shows stronger demand, companies can invest with greater confidence. When consumers see less value, teams can change direction before development costs, inventory or marketing dollars are locked in. That is how First Insight turns customer intelligence into financial impact.”
First Insight assigns each product or concept it evaluates a Value Score™ rating. The proprietary, forward-looking rating reflects customer demand, willingness to pay and sentiment, helping companies identify stronger opportunities, diagnose weaker ones and determine where changes may improve customer response. Companies including Under Armour, Boden and Family Dollar use First Insight to guide strategy, innovation, product development, pricing, assortment and go-to-market decisions.
“I’ve backed technology companies for 35 years, and the ones that break out get two things right: a product the market truly needs, and leadership that can take it to full scale,” said Barry Goldsmith, Operating Partner and Co-Founder of Updata Partners and a member of First Insight’s board of directors. “First Insight has established a strong position in its market with global reach. Jim is the right CEO to build on that and accelerate what’s next. We are proud to support this team.”
First Insight serves enterprise customers across North America, Europe, Australia and Latin America, with a UK-based team supporting its European clients. A recent partnership with Grupo Coppel, one of Mexico’s largest department store chains, marked First Insight’s expansion into Latin America. First Insight has built its deepest proof in retail, particularly apparel and footwear. It has also worked with companies across grocery, consumer packaged goods, beauty, pet, home goods, hospitality and consumer electronics. Across these categories, companies face the same fundamental questions: Where should we invest, and what will our customers buy?
