AKQA · Cultural Intelligence

Find the cultural tension behind your next idea

About 300 trends each week, from 12,600 search terms in 45 markets.

Cultural Intelligence reads what people search for and share. It groups those signals into cultural trends, then explains each trend and shows whether it is growing. Use it to find a strong cultural starting point for a creative idea.

Open the tool ci-dev.akqa.app How to get access
When to use it

A wide lens on culture, not a microscope on conversation

Use it for

  • Finding a cultural angle for a brief: the tension, need or mood that a group of people share.
  • Seeing large patterns that appear in many markets and languages at the same time.
  • Checking a theme before you commit to it: is it growing, stable or fading?
  • Grounding an idea in the real words people use when they search.
  • Comparing trends by how well they fit your client's brand.

Do not use it for

  • Social listening: brand mentions, sentiment, or what people say about a product.
  • Single posts or creators. A trend is a group of many terms, not one viral moment.
  • Exact volumes or audience size. Scores are ranks, not counts of people.
  • Real-time monitoring. Trends change week by week, not minute by minute.
  • Audience research. The personas in Simulate are examples, not real audiences.

In short: use Cultural Intelligence to get ideas and direction. If you must know exactly what people say about a brand, use a social-listening tool.

Working with it

From a client brief to a trend-backed idea

  1. Discover

    Look at the trends for your category. Or give the client brief to your AI assistant to find trends that match it.

    In the tool: Opportunities. In chat: explore_brief

  2. Inspect

    Open a trend. Look at its history over 12 weeks and at how it changed. Did it split or merge with other trends? Decide if it will last or fade quickly.

    In the tool: trend detail, Compare, Watchlist

  3. Ground

    Read the terms inside the trend. Use the real words and the underlying need to keep your idea honest.

    In the tool: trend detail → terms

  4. Build

    Build a Codex (the brand profile in the tool) for your client. Then turn the trend into a brief and a creative route. Refine it in chat and make first visuals.

    In the tool: Codex, Briefs, Briefing Pack, Studio
Reading a trend

What the numbers mean

The scores help you compare and sort trends. They do not count people.

Intensity1 – 100
How this trend ranks against all other trends in the same week. Ranks above most trends this week. Not a search volume.
Momentum−100 – +100
A model forecast of the trend's direction over the next 12 weeks. Positive means growth. Negative means decline. Use it to sort trends. It is not a guarantee.
ConfidenceHigh · Medium · Low
How strong the momentum forecast is. High means the forecast points clearly one way. It is not a probability or a margin of error.
Emergence1 – 5
How much real cultural change the AI sees in the trend. Routine topics score low. 4 or 5 means clear, supported change.
Brand relevanceper brand
How well a trend fits your client's brand, based on the brand's Codex. The score is only as good as the Codex.

Before you trust a number

Region filter
Shows only trends that appear in the country you select. The scores on the card stay global. This trend is present here. The number is not its local size.
"Estimated" relevance
The tool found no real match between the trend and the brand's Codex. Treat it as a guess.
"Stale data"
The trend's data is too old or has no date, so the tool cannot score its urgency. Unknown, not low.
How it works

From a search term to a trend

Follow one real trend from Dev through five steps. Terms in many languages become one trend.

  1. Daily

    Collect

    We collect trending searches and hashtags from Google Trends, TikTok and Pinterest in each market.

    Example
    fridayvibesfelizdomingobuonweekend
  2. Daily

    Understand

    An AI model (Gemini, with Google Search) finds out what each term means. Then it writes a short profile: who searches it, their moment, and what they want.

    Profile of fridayvibesA worker who clocks out after a hard week and wants content that shares their collective relief.
  3. Weekly

    Group

    Terms with similar profiles go into the same group, in any language. The system finds the groups itself. Nobody sets a fixed list of topics.

    ResultThe weekend terms share the same need, so they go into one group with other Friday and weekend greetings.
  4. Weekly

    Name

    AI writes a title, the cultural tension, a short description, a key insight and the underlying need. It also rates emergence from 1 to 5.

    TrendWeekend Leisure GreetingsMultilingual social greetings celebrating Fridays and weekends highlight routine cultural habits centered on leisure and rest.Underlying needIdleness: leisure anticipation
  5. Weekly

    Score and track

    Each trend gets an intensity rank and a momentum forecast. We connect it to the same trend in past weeks, so you can see its history. Quality checks run before we publish.

    You seeEmergence 2 of 5: a routine rhythm, not a new shift. Tracked for 37 weeks, so you can see its full history.
One week of data: ~36,000 observations → ~12,600 terms → ~300 trends You can trace every trend back to the terms people searched.
Data sources

Where the signal comes from

Three sources make trends today.

SourceWhat it givesMarkets
Google Trends Top and rising search terms in each country. The US also has city-area (DMA) detail. ~45 countries
TikTok Trending hashtags with rank, views and post counts. 27 marketsnot HK, IN, CN
Pinterest Growing search terms, with a volume index and seasonality. 10 markets

More sources are coming: YouTube, TikTok video and Reddit will add example videos and posts to trend cards. We also collect X (Twitter) and Shazam, but they do not feed trends yet.

Get started

Open the tool and choose how you work

For most strategists

Web app

Go to ci-dev.akqa.app. Create an account, or accept an invite from a teammate. Then start at Opportunities.

For prototypes and data work

API

Get trends as data for your own tools, sheets or prototypes. Create a key in Settings → API keys, then send it with each request. Reference: api.ci-dev.akqa.app/docs.

For working in chat

MCP (AI assistants)

Connect Gemini, Claude or a similar assistant through AKQA Signals. Ask about trends in plain language. Access is read-only. To get access and setup steps, go to AKQA Signals → Access.

Environments

EnvironmentLinkUse it forStatus
Dev ci-dev.akqa.app The current working release, with the newest features. Use this one for your work. Use this
UAT ci-uat.akqa.app Acceptance testing before a production release. Older than Dev
Sandbox cultintel-web-sandbox…hosted.app The build team's test area for new features. It can break or change without warning. Do not use it for client work. Unstable
Prod ci.akqa.app (planned) The future production release. It is not available yet. Not released