Opinions: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Market Research
The market research industry has been continuously evolving since its inception, and with that evolution comes compelling change. This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Andy Monzon, Zintro’s Head of Project Management and Customer Success, and Michael Collins, Zintro’s former Chief Revenue Officer, about what current components of the industry they find most interesting. Both Monzon and Collins expressed an interest in the presence of artificial intelligence in the landscape of market research, each offering a distinct perspective.
From Monzon’s point of view, artificial intelligence poses an interesting problem for the market research industry. With its development, artificial intelligence has begun to blur the line between reliable and unreliable data. While many respondents in research are qualified human beings with important insight to offer clients, some “respondents” are wholly artificial, providing fraudulent data and thereby negatively impacting the integrity of the research. To Monzon, providing all clients in the industry with sound data is of the utmost importance, highlighting why, to him, solving the problems posed by artificial intelligence through increased industry-wide securities and protocol is so enticing.
Complementing this perspective, Collins suggested that artificial intelligence is an interesting topic within the industry because it “reinforces the value of qualitative research as a more fraud-resistant methodology”. In other words, artificial intelligence highlights the aforementioned flaw in the quantitative research system and emphasizes the importance of qualitative research methods such as in-person or online interviews. While these methods of market research introduce a level of live accountability, deep fakes may present themselves as a hurdle to overcome in qualitative research.
Taking both perspectives into consideration, it becomes clear that there are two sides to the same coin. While artificial intelligence introduces certain issues into the data collection process, that is not to say that those issues cannot be resolved; search algorithms for finding the proper participants within panels and expert network databases continue to become more advanced. Furthermore, those same issues bring light to the benefits of qualitative research and thereby help the industry to evolve further. Perhaps the use of intentional artificial intelligence archetypes will one day become an accepted practice in the industry.
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