We’re in the midst of an insights revolution driven by artificial intelligence.
AI has been a growth industry for years, steadily getting smarter and introducing huge benefits to different industries. Research is no exception; 21% of insights specialists already use AI tools, and 53% say they expect to use them more in the future.
That 21% has a head start on using the fastest, smartest, most efficient way to generate insights from data. They understand that the ramifications of AI for data analysis are huge – and that it’s the future of the industry.
As we accustom ourselves to a new norm of uncertainty – the consequence of increasingly unpredictable human behavior fueled by COVID – it’s becoming critical to run research programs that can keep pace with the ever-changing needs of your audience.
When you couple this unpredictability with the unprecedented number of modern data sources – traditional surveys alongside social media, hubs like Reddit, product reviews, call center data, and the like – you’re left with a burning question.
How can you create, manage, and optimize an insights program that gives you the feedback you need to drive growth and innovation – without losing time and energy to manual work?
The answer, of course, is to leverage the power and promise of AI. Here, we address the key concerns around AI – gleaned through survey data from 200 research and insights specialists in Australia and the US focusing on AI for text analytics – and provide a rundown of its benefits.
Let’s dive in.
AI: Friend or foe?
AI has courted controversy since its infancy. From sci-fi fears of a robot uprising to real-world trepidation over losing jobs to machines, it’s long been viewed with a mix of intrigue and skepticism.
But a few concerns reign top of mind for insights specialists around text analytics:
- 22% are worried about quality of insights
- 28% are worried about granularity of insights
- 36% are worried how much time is required to set up and use
With the advent of unprecedentedly sophisticated neural networks like OpenAI’s GPT-3, we can now generate insights with far greater speed and precision than ever before – making researchers’ jobs easier and more valuable.
As one specialist from our survey noted, “AI can organize data or see patterns in ways that might take me far longer or that I wouldn’t notice at all.”
The benefits of AI in insights
We asked our researcher pool to identify benefits they’d like to see in an AI tool. Some standouts?
- Ease of analysis (49%)
- Accuracy (44%)
- Less manual work (41%)
- Depth of insight (37%)
- Cost efficiency (35%)
- Speed (33%)
The good news: AI tools easily tick each of these boxes. Here’s how.
1. Improving efficiency and saving time through automation
Speed, ease, and manual work all fall under automation, a primary feature of AI-powered tools.
Because of their size and power, they’re able to aggregate and analyze huge amounts of data at incredible speeds – one top-of-the-line platform is 995 times faster than an expert human coder – eliminating (or drastically minimizing) the manual work and effort that’s long been associated with research.
2. Revolutionizing workplace productivity
AI improves productivity at both the individual and business levels.
For the former, it improves efficiency and the ability to meet stakeholders’ expectations – and for the latter, it unlocks insights never before available, enabling faster decision-making and greater agility. As one respondent said, it’s “the ability to save considerable amounts of time for other tasks and responsibilities” that they appreciate most.
3. Unlocking the true value in data
The best AI tools are orders of magnitude faster and more thorough than humans, enabling the extraction of greater detail and depth from datasets.
This allows researchers to swiftly identify the true value in a dataset, rather than wasting time combing through data on their own and potentially missing important themes or trends. There’s also the potential to look at your data from multiple angles with just the click of a button.
Further, AI is capable of analyzing datasets from multiple sources concurrently – meaning you get a detailed overview of all relevant information from all sources in one go.
4. Predicting trends once impossible to see
Keeping a finger on the pulse of trends is more important than ever before – and it’s also more difficult, thanks to that increasingly unpredictable consumer behavior we mentioned earlier.
But AI solves this problem.
One world-leading AI platform, for example, offers both a big-picture overview of themes, sub-themes, and sentiment from your unstructured text data and far more granular detail within those brackets, giving you the opportunity to observe and act on trends you’d never have found solo.
5. Driving continuous improvement through technological evolution
Because AI is always getting smarter, faster, and more powerful, so too are your research tools.
Neural networks like OpenAI’s GPT-3 are trained on enormous data parameters – 175 billion, in this case – and get better every day. These improvements transfer to your business’s insights program, enabling you to make smarter, faster decisions that result in the best outcomes.
6. Democratizing insights
Because research projects are traditionally cumbersome and expensive, most businesses don’t widely undertake them or implement them at all the levels where they’re useful – unless, of course, they have an ocean of resources at their disposal.
That means it’s traditionally only large corporates or über-successful organizations that can build robust insights programs and get the most from them. For smaller businesses without those deep pockets, research projects are usually reserved for big-value departments like product development, meaning insights are dramatically underutilized in steering business strategy.
But AI-powered tools automate what’s historically been a manual process, making it far more cost-effective than ever. This means:
- Smaller businesses can build sustainable research programs without breaking the bank.
- Businesses with existing programs can improve them while saving money.
- Data previously collected but unused can be effectively mined for insights.
- It’s now feasible to incorporate insights into more aspects of your business – meaning you can structure your strategy based off what your data is actually telling you instead of guessing at where your time and money are best spent.
7. Validating business strategy
This is one of the greatest benefits AI has to offer in insights.
Because AI allows for analysis of huge datasets with unmatched speed and precision, businesses can now use their data to dictate strategy at all levels. This results in more informed decision-making across the organization, as well as more efficient use of money and resources.
Decision-makers and stakeholders can feel confident they’re doing the right thing because they have substantiated data driving their choices – a huge boon for businesses that will ultimately accelerate growth and innovation.
The AI factor
Bottom line: if you’re not using AI in your research, you should be. The benefits are myriad, from huge time savings to richer insights to better business decisions – and the future’s only getting brighter. Don’t get left behind.
