Are Market Researchers Allergic to AI? Our AI Moderator Reveals the Truth

99% of the time we are busy excavating consumer insights. But today we’re looking within, at the professionals in the market research industry with a variety of job titles from researcher to VP. How do they use it? What are their doubts and concerns about it? Would they trust an AI automoderator with their clients? Let’s find out.

This research was performed by our AI auto moderator Yasna. All we did was write a list of questions with probing instructions. Everything else was handled by Yasna.

The applications of AI

The majority referenced applications such as generating ideas (for ad creatives, survey questions, article titles), copywriting and generating images, summarising and analysing long texts, theme and key findings extraction, exploring unfamiliar topics. A sentiment shared by many of the respondents can be summed up by this quote:

However, a loss of creativity, critical thinking and a general threat of getting lazier are among the common worries.

Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency

If we had to pick a direct synonym to AI based on the answers we received, it would be “efficiency”.
For the MRX professionals, that entails:

simplifying routine tasks,
freeing up time for more important work,
being able to process and analyse large amounts of data.

Concerns about incorporating AI into work / research

Everything comes down to the scale. Our respondents were comfortable with the idea of using AI for shorter, simpler, more mechanistic tasks as well as desk research, quant studies and usability tests where the respondent needs to complete a task, and provide feedback. Distrust in AI’s ability grew in proportion to the level of task complexity.

Biggest concerns were:

AI’s Lack of Human Qualities

Such as empathy, creativity, and most notably, the ability to decode emotions.

Some described it as a “black box” where data is processed in an unknown way. This lack of transparency about how AI works and how it processes data creates doubts.

Confidentiality

Potential risk of exposing confidential information when using AI.

Data Accuracy and Integrity

There are worries about the truthfulness and accuracy of the information provided by AI.

When it comes to using automoderators in communication with clients, customers and users, the level of trust hinges on a few factors, in particular flexibility and adaptability:

In AI Automoderators we trust?

When it comes to using automoderators in communication with clients, customers and users, the level of trust hinges on a few factors, in particular flexibility and adaptability:

Although AI Automoderators are a young development and still have to prove themselves, these are the benefits that market research professionals do already recognise:

Dear Market Researchers,

We fully understand your concerns regarding the AI Automoderator – lack of empathy, ability to understand human emotions and interact with the respondents efficiently. We were concerned about that, too.
That is why we spent a whole year teaching our AI agent Yasna the techniques of deep and hybrid moderation in order to extract quality information.
Now it can probe, react with emojis, understand if a respondent shares something sad, funny or happy, and react with a human-like empathy.
Jump here to chat with Yasna and see for yourself.

We know we are on the right track – just read the feedback we get from our respondents:

Tanya Berlina

Client Success Director @ Yasna.ai