Artificial intelligence in market research is still a growing trend in the industry. Something that sounded like science fiction a few decades ago now is becoming a part of our daily routine. Studies have shown that the majority of market researchers are looking forward to AI implementation. According to them, 93% of market researchers recognize AI as an opportunity. There are many reasons for that, so let’s dig deeper into the market research areas that AI will impact the most!
What is artificial intelligence?
To understand what we can expect with the rise of artificial intelligence in market research, it’s essential to define it first. In a nutshell, artificial intelligence is a simulation of the human mind performed by machines. This mainly consists of problem-solving, decision-making, perception, and learning. Mainly, all the things that human intelligence is capable of.
Artificial intelligence and automation
There might be a slight misconception that artificial intelligence and automation are the same things. In reality, they are very different. Automation is the machine’s ability to perform different tasks set by a human. This means that automation follows the given instructions to speed up the work process. However, it’s unable to learn anything new and make a decision, as opposed to AI. And that’s what sets them apart from one another the most.
Now that we set the record straight, we can look into the ways AI will impact the market research industry!
AI helps to find the right people and increases community engagement
AI in market research can be used as early as in a process of finding the respondents. Precisely, to choose the right respondents for a specific survey. The respondents who participate in surveying — the panelists, most commonly receive an invitation for a survey and take part in it, if they meet the requirements. If they respond to many invitations positively but are rarely selected to participate, it can cause participants to ignore further invitations and give up.
Artificial intelligence can help analyze participants’ behavior and recognize when the respondent is on the urge of giving up. This can help increase community engagement and reduce the churn rate which results in higher-quality data. Remember, communication with members is the key.
AI can analyze open-ended text responses and make insights conversational
Diving through thousands of social media comments, e-mails and open-ended survey responses manually can be quite challenging. That’s where the AI subfield — Natural Language Processing along with Sentiment Analysing, comes in handy. Its technology is capable of distinguishing the category of the text, positive or negative sentiment, and detecting the main entity of the text. This drastically reduces the time spent on analyzing qualitative responses.
AI in market research can also make use of the algorithm to suggest follow-up questions to respondents. The questions are suggested based on the learnings and data collected from previous respondents. This way, the researchers are free from predicting every possible response before the research and let the algorithm do the work.
AI results in more accurate market research data
To ensure data integrity, it is necessary to eliminate the possibility of bias as much as possible. This can happen in a few cases. For instance, when interviewing a lot of people in a focus group, it’s hard for the interviewer to ponder all things equally. As humans, this is completely normal. Some data can evoke certain memories and make them more memorable than others.
On the other hand, the person being questioned can also present some things clearer than another, as they recall it. With AI, there is no risk of bias, as the machine remembers all things equally as data. This way, the chance of delivering real-time accurate insight is much higher than it would normally be.
Repurposing the known data
The data available to companies nowadays is enormous and it’s getting bigger every day. Companies are spending a lot of time and resources researching their next strategic moves, while there is a high chance they already own all the data they need. In most cases, this data is not easy to dig, at least not manually.
For that reason, artificial intelligence is going towards the most efficient ways of using the data available now. According to S. Litman, an AI-enabled knowledge management system presents itself as a great solution. It should be as simple as asking the query and letting the system do the work, presenting all the relevant data you may use to get an insight. This can leave more time for planning the next strategic moves, instead of repeatedly researching what was already there.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence in market research is something we will definitely continue to hear about. With its potential to change the industry completely, no wonder it’s still a growing trend among market researchers. Choosing the right respondents, making sure they stay engaged, analyzing the open-ended text, and making the whole process conversational are only a few of the things that will impact the market research even more. Artificial intelligence in market research is growing, and it’s up to us to make the most out of it.
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