Skip to content

Helion Research transforms mystery shopping with AI and Microsoft Fabric

On Sep­tem­ber 10, Hype­r­i­on orga­nized a net­work­ing event in Kon­tich where sev­er­al clients came to share their sto­ry. One of the most inspir­ing cas­es was that of Helion Research, an inter­na­tion­al­ly active mys­tery shop­ping com­pa­ny head­quar­tered in Antwerp. In con­ver­sa­tion with Neme­on (one of Hype­r­i­on’s sub­sidiaries), they shared how they used AI and data to fun­da­men­tal­ly trans­form their processes.

03 October 2025

The challenge: labor-intensive and costly

Helion works with thou­sands of mys­tery shop­pers who vis­it stores for major brands like Torfs, Q8, and Pra­da. They fill out sur­veys and sub­mit pho­tos and reviews that feed into their plat­form, ​“Shop­met­rics.” This data is crit­i­cal: lux­u­ry brand licens­es depend direct­ly on it.

But the process was extreme­ly labor-inten­sive and cost­ly. Mys­tery shop­pers sub­mit­ted pho­tos, after which employ­ees man­u­al­ly filled out and assessed sur­veys. Helion’s ques­tion was clear: Can AI speed up this process while still guar­an­tee­ing reliability?

The solution: AI as mediator

Togeth­er with Neme­on, a solu­tion was devel­oped in which an AI mod­ule fills out sur­veys based on pho­tos. The human role did­n’t dis­ap­pear, it changed. Employ­ees start­ed using AI as a kind of sec­ond opin­ion, or mediator:

“The AI says the store is dirty. Is that accurate, or was there just one full trash bin? The human makes the final call.”

Mark Verheyden Founder at Nemeon

The result?

  • Bet­ter effi­cien­cy: employ­ees can process more accounts in the same amount of time.
  • Cost sav­ings: AI part­ly replaces off­shore inter­pre­ta­tion, with­out los­ing quality.
  • High­er reli­a­bil­i­ty: by train­ing mod­els on data from the best review­ers, accu­ra­cy improved significantly.

Data infrastructure as the foundation

One key les­son: with­out a sol­id data ware­house, AI remains a dis­con­nect­ed tool. That’s why Microsoft Fab­ric was cho­sen as the mod­ern data infra­struc­ture. This made it pos­si­ble to plug in the AI mod­els in a scal­able, reli­able way, with room to expand into oth­er domains.

The future: from mystery shopping to broader applications

While this case cen­ters on mys­tery shop­ping, the insights apply far more broad­ly. Think retail audits, field ser­vices, or even facil­i­ty man­age­ment. Any­where pho­tos, obser­va­tions, and eval­u­a­tions come togeth­er, AI can act as an accelerator.

Losing your job to AI?

Helion Research’s case shows how AI and data don’t sim­ply replace jobs, they enable new forms of col­lab­o­ra­tion between humans and machines. By invest­ing smart­ly in infra­struc­ture and mod­els, a future emerges where mys­tery shop­ping becomes faster, more reli­able, and more valuable.

Let’s sync up!

Send us a message