At the recent ESOMAR Congress 2024 in Athens, Greece, Radius Vice President Shayna Beckwith and Chief Research Officer Michael Patterson, PhD, presented papers on the evolving role of AI in market research. Patterson’s paper, Modern Day Prometheus: Digital Respondents and their Implications for Market Research, examined the use of synthetic AI respondents and their impact on traditional methods. Beckwith’s presentation, Amplifying Human Insights with AI, focused on how AI can enhance emotional depth in research by blending machine-driven insights with human understanding. Both presentations emphasized the importance of defining best practices for using AI without losing the human elements that are critical for generating meaningful insights.
Intelligent agents will transform the survey experience.
Presentations throughout ESOMAR reinforced the role of AI in surveys, especially for prompting follow-up probes to open-ended questions. Conversational AI was also a trending topic. During a panel on synthetic respondents, there were key questions about this technology, including:
- How can we be confident that the results from synthetic respondents are accurate?
- What is the best approach for testing the results from synthetic respondents vs. real consumer respondents?
- Under what conditions would synthetic respondents be warranted?
These conversations will help us as we refine our intelligent probing tool, and will also impact the conversational AI tool we are currently developing.
Enhancing and amplifying insights delivers rich insights and greater value.
One of the key advantages AI offers researchers is its ability to review existing data, synthesize it quickly, and uncover insights before launching new research. This brings a great deal of value to clients. Techniques for sifting through research reports and extracting relevant information are being refined and accelerated by AI, improving the way we provide richer insights to our clients using their existing data.
We also gleaned additional ways to enhance our Innovation Sprint™ work, using generative AI to uncover seed ideas or help with brainstorming and developing concepts like taglines, product names, and messaging.
AI is proving to be a powerful tool in connecting data with emotional insights, offering a deeper understanding of consumer motivations. By incorporating AI into our qualitative research, we can craft smarter questions and probe for insights that might otherwise go unnoticed. This approach allows us to combine the speed and scalability of AI with the emotional and contextual depth that only humans can provide.
By incorporating AI into our qualitative research, we can craft smarter questions and probe for insights that might otherwise go unnoticed. This approach allows us to combine the speed and scalability of AI with the emotional and contextual depth that only humans can provide.”
Checks and balances are needed as researchers implement AI.
The sheer volume of presenters addressing AI at ESOMAR highlights how quickly the technology is becoming central to market research. However, most are still grappling with how to ensure AI-generated insights are as reliable as those from human respondents. Common concerns heard throughout presentations included the need for robust testing, ethical considerations, and ensuring accuracy in AI outputs.
AI is already influencing how we conduct market research, our challenge is to identify where and when it is best to apply. Our focus will continue to be on leveraging AI to improve efficiency while uncovering the human touch that is essential for meaningful market research. By maintaining this balance, we can ensure that the insights we deliver are both data-driven and attuned to the emotional realities of consumers.
If you want to explore how AI can enrich your research program, contact us.
