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Automation in our industry is nothing new. For years, research organizations have been under pressure to uncover deeper, better, more actionable insight faster and more cheaply. Why then do we continue to see debate raging about automation’s place in our people-based sector? From warnings that artificial intelligence (AI) signals the death of market research to the promise of a complete rebirth, it’s hard to know where reality lies.
The truth is there’s no panic. We’re an industry that’s been doing this for years. Back in the day, questionnaire scanning was revolutionary in speeding up the data capture process – created in direct response to the need for faster results. A simple example but one that shows why automation is essential to the continual evolution of our sector.
The biggest difference is that automation now spans the entire market research lifecycle – from survey design to sampling, data collection to reporting and analysis to insight. And today’s tools work on a much deeper level, using more advanced techniques, from emotional response recognition, to multimedia feedback, to social media analysis and more.
While the tools we now have at our disposal are designed to make the lives of both researchers and clients easier, some argue that they do the opposite – and that the relentless pursuit of speed compromises research quality too.
But is this really the case?
The quality vs. speed debate
Software providers are working hard to hone the capabilities of automation tools to ensure that research can be both fast and high-quality. In an effort to balance the demands from market research agencies for accuracy and quality with the needs of end clients for instant business insight, automation has paved the way for accurate, agile research.
But this minefield of technology choices can pose real challenges for data integrity. Many also still question the accuracy of software-interpreted data. These are valid concerns but they’re being put to rest as automation matures. Today, there’s a wealth of solutions that deliver proven data accuracy, consistency and faster insight delivery.
Take text analytics, for example. The increasing volume of social media data has been a key driver for developing automated analysis tools and social media analytics solutions are now proving their value in delivering insight from vast data sets. 
Such tools have the added advantage of allowing researchers to become insight experts. Automating repetitive data collection and analysis tasks enables researchers to focus on the in-depth analytical processes that continue to require human interpretation.
Combining human skill and automated action
What’s increased in the past few years is the level of capability that automation can now deliver – moving from simple, process-based work to deeper, more complex and cognitive aspects of the research lifecycle. This is where some commentators raise the threat of human redundancy.
This isn’t without foundation. Predictive analytics, automated creation of surveys from Word documents and action modeling are just a few examples of the step change that we’re seeing. These types of solutions are slowly creating a new normal for market research practitioners.
But with administrative tasks being capably handled by automation tools, research teams are now embracing the opportunity to evolve themselves. We’re seeing the formation of specialist hubs, where researchers become data scientists and reports become strategic business guidance. Indeed, the increased need for skilled people is one of the key benefits of automation – and we’re already seeing that research roles are evolving to fit new ways of working.
Automation is increasing the requirement for broadly-skilled project managers, for example, where in-depth subject knowledge is no longer required but an understanding of the many automated steps of the research process is critical. There’s also growing evidence to suggest that automation improves inter-departmental working and collaboration, both across survey teams and with external partners and customers.
Increasingly clever, increasingly skilled
Today, we’re seeing an acceleration in the introduction of market research-specific automation from a new angle – artificial intelligence.
AI solutions delve even deeper into the research process, with the latest techniques such as deep-learning neural networks and natural language processing being harnessed to automatically uncover insights.
This is driving exponential growth in the implementation of AI tools across all aspects of market research, most notably in the areas of predictive analytics, social media analytics and action management.
By moving beyond a model of analyzing research data based on predefined category models, organizations can continually learn with an “automated eye” on what’s changing in their world. Tests show that even in their early adoption, such tools deliver accuracy results that often exceed 90% and outperform human analytical capabilities.
Embrace it – automation is here to stay
This is, perhaps, a scary scenario for all of us who work in market research. Looking at accuracy rates and the raw capabilities of AI tools alone, it’s easy to assume that we don’t need people to deliver better, deeper insight to our clients.
But technology is an enabler – an opportunity for human roles to evolve. Embracing tools to do some of our deeper learning means that we’re able to elevate our own work to deliver better, more accurate guidance and decision-making.
Automation, and particularly AI, is a catalyst for human understanding, not a replacement for it. It doesn’t deliver all the answers fully-formed but provides the most accurate and appropriate insight to guide people to the answers we need.
Along with the wealth of wider benefits that automation delivers to clients and researchers alike – increased opportunities for self-serve; the creation of “lighter and faster” research to sit on top of in-depth programs; accessibility to research for wider teams; repeatability; and productivity and cost savings, to name just a few – we need to embrace automation for everything it delivers.
There is just one proviso – and it’s a big one: We must be more rigorous than ever in our assessment of quality. This requires a finely-tuned understanding of how data needs to be accessed, manipulated and delivered. By sticking to our foundations of integrity and accuracy, automated research is one of the biggest tools in our armory – and our best opportunity for market research evolution in the face of ever-changing client requirements.