How AI Is Transforming Engagement and Market Research

April 2019

by Erica Garza

While Hollywood movies may lead you to think AI is something ominous, market researchers have nothing to fear and everything to gain. The latest applications of artificial intelligence are transforming engagement and leading to the hottest trends in market research, with everything from large-scale data analysis to report generation. Here are some ways AI can help market researchers succeed in 2019 and beyond.

AI Analyzes Massive Data

Artificial intelligence is able to collect and analyze massive amounts of data at a higher speed and with more accuracy than ever before. This allows market researchers to understand their audience on a deeper level, not just what they like, but why they like it. AI can present market researchers with real-time insights and automate tedious tasks with more efficiency.

AI Generates Reports

One such tedious task is writing reports. Instead of poring over PowerPoint with categorized data points, AI saves time and energy by generating reports automatically. Much like humans, AI can actually learn to make assumptions and judgments about that data, and then generate a report, only faster. This frees up market researchers’ time to validate AI-produced data and come up with hypotheses based on findings.

AI Reduces Bias

No matter how much market researchers try to avoid bias, it usually creeps back. According to Forbes, there are two kinds of bias in market research. The first is the researcher, the focus group facilitator or, in general, the person conducting the research, which can result from the usage of certain words or phrases, or even attention paid to certain details over others.

The second bias in the customer being researched. However, AI designed to gather data about user behavior and actions has no bias. Using AI, researchers can determine a more accurate representation of what people are actually thinking and doing.

AI Maintains Engagement

AI can support market researchers in maintaining engagement and achieving higher-quality results with predictive modeling to identify users at risk of dropping out. One study showed that, after employing artificial intelligence tools to gather market research, average engagement time improved by 25 percent and survey turnaround time dropped by 23 percent, making it a more effective way to engage respondents.

AI Lowers Costs

AI performs repetitive yet simple tasks faster than humans, saving corporations big money in terms of hourly pay and salary. AI can already scan huge amounts of open-source data, and analyze this data. It is suspected that over time it will also be able to gather meaning from published pieces, which will can also reduce research costs. While this might mean that AI can replace some technical employee positions, as Martec puts it, in the long run, it holds the potential to create positions that require more specified skills like “collaboration, communication and creative problem-solving.”

AI Improves Customer Relationships

One of the unexpected side effects of AI’s growing popularity is its ability to foster real human connections between businesses and customers. That’s because AI takes care of the busywork associated with deep research and data collection, so businesses can spend their energy connecting personally with the client.

Erica Garza is an author, essayist and copywriter with over a decade of marketing experience writing about hospitality, health and lifestyle products. Her work has appeared in TIME, Health, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Health, The Telegraph and VICE. She lives in Los Angeles.

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