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The Market Research (MR) industry spun off from Advertising as an important sub component of promoting businesses. MR helped in arriving at reasoned conclusions based on insights into consumer behaviour and needs. The process of providing these insights required the use of tools which over time became a norm for the business- Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Polls, Interviews. The second half of the last century were the growth years of the business and a few Global Firms dominated the market worldwide. At the other end of the spectrum were “boutique” outfits that dabbled on non-traditional processes of gathering insights. Both types of Entities grew for there was space for both types of creative inputs.
The turn of the Century, first the power of the Internet and now the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is silently (at least for the present) making waves that a typical MR Firm needs either ride on, or perish under. The question is not will it impact but when. The timing in turn depends on the speed of innovation and here AI is certainly setting a furious pace. The sheer novelty of the offerings and its capabilities is throwing up challenges that MR Firms need to inevitably face unto. They appear at ever more frequent intervals, each requiring a quick and deft decision to stay afloat
On a macro perspective the innovations as they pertain to MR may be categorised in three sections-(1) Data Capture (2) Data Analysis and (3) Post Implementation monitoring.
In both forms of data capture (1) secondary desk based and (2) feet-on-the street field surveys; digital tools and AI has a strong and growing presence. With respect to desk-based data capture, Bing (Microsoft) and Bard (Google) are fighting for market dominance and the Market Researcher benefits from this turf war. With respect to field surveys, gone are the days of doubting the authenticity of data. The nagging feeling that the surveyor has ticked off the responses sitting under a tree rather than meeting a respondent is “HISTORY”. Software Firms have developed specific products for data capture, that monitors accuracy at time of capture, error free uploading and feedback on collection efficiency. Many offer the software as a Service (SaaS), enabling the MR Firms to keep abreast of the almost daily improvements in the offerings.
The simple act of a consumer pressing one of three emoticons (delighted, ok, disappointed) post a product purchased or a service availed is just the start of a new area of data capture, wherein the respondent directly helps capture data rather that depend on a field surveyor. The negative choice is often processed further by seeking responses to a short list of follow up questions.
The “online” live nature of data capture has impacted the tradition of a sequence of activities – capture, upload, validate and response. Now consumer insights are available on a daily, updated manner.
Along with the changes in data acquisition and quality of data, AI along with other software developments are impacting the process of analysis of data. New buzz words emerge periodically to explain these changes. One such buzz word is “Sentiment Analysis” (the AI driven process that integrates output from the study of visuals of customer’s emotions), along assessing opinions from opinions and attitudes expressed in text uploaded on social media, or provided in surveys.
The ability of AI to process the enormous data contents across formats results in comprehensive reasonable findings on specific issues, which would not be feasible in non-AI environment. The cosmetic industry is an active in the use of AI for insights. This is bound to spread to many more businesses as well.
In an article by columnist Araks Nalbandyan the author highlights areas where AI would support MR:
| No | Area | Delivery |
| 1 | Cluster Algorithms | Enabling market segmentation |
| 2 | Image and Video Analysis | Assessing consumer preferences |
| 3 | Voice and Speech Analysis | Enhancing customer experiences based on call centre dialogues |
| 4 | Social Media Listening | Tracking brand mentions |
| 5 | Chatbot and Virtual Assistant | Providing personalized products |
| 6 | Customer Journey Analysis | Analysing touchpoints across multiple channels and thereby optimize delivery experience |
| 7 | Demand Forecasting | Analysing sales data to optimize supply chain issues |
| 8 | Concept testing | Cost effective user feedback for start ups |
Perhaps the most revolutionary impact on MR would be the use of AI to help “generate” content based on prompts and inputs from users. This GenAI tool (already available on ChatGPT and DELL and also on Amazon Web Services), would aid the intellectual input of the human to come out with superior outcomes. One could envisage an advertisement content being “generated” by AI based on the outcome of MR findings.
Thus, AI makes its presence in all three aspects of the MR function - data capture, analysis and implementation. The columnist Araks Nalbandyan is perhaps the first to coin the acronym AICI - AI enabled Consumer Intelligence. It is not too futuristic to envisage a scenario, where the three businesses of Advertising, MR and IT meld to create a one house entity of Consumer Intelligence, which could be outsourced by Corporates to address the challenges in the workplace. A recent Gartner study cites Technology trends as amongst the highest concerns going forward. The pioneer in developing an outsourceable, one stop shop with respect to Consumer insights stands to gain.
"...computer guided robots..perhaps before too long..will be able to do immeasurably more than merely assist our intelligence.They will actually have immense intelligence on their own. We could then turn to these superior intelligences for advice.." Sir Roger Penrose Nobel Laureate Physics
(The writer is a retired management professional currently in the Coaching and Mentoring space)
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