How Generative AI is Changing the Research Industry

ChatGPT (GPT meaning “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It has quickly exploded in public awareness and rapid development of myriad applications because of its ease of use and amazing conversational format.

We recently published a blog post on the topic written by a team at Nexxt Intelligence. And we experimented with the artificial intelligence powering ChatGPT ourselves in this post authored by, well, me and my team, when we asked the platform to summarize a transcript from a recent podcast episode.

Then last week, I was invited to speak with Dan Fleetwood and Vivek Bhaskaran from QuestionPro, along with Jamin Brazil of HubUX, on this particular hot topic. The four of us barely scratched the surface, which in and of itself is mind boggling.

After, we asked ChatGPT to “Write a 5-paragraph blog post using the text from the transcript” and this is what the learning algorithm came back with:

“ChatGPT is an AI engine that can be used for answering questions and providing smart responses through a chat interface, with capabilities such as content creation, summarization and assistant-like features. It’s different from other chat bots because of the advanced technology running on the backend. One commentator, Jamin, believes that ChatGPT will have a bigger impact on data gathering and analysis in 2023 than the internet did from 1996 to 2006. He explains that the internet mostly helped with speed and accessibility, but ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize the way customer insights are gathered and analyzed by enabling the use of natural conversation, decoupling the current framework, and making it more actionable by analyzing open-ended questions with more sophistication.

Lenny and Viv discuss the impact of technology like ChatGPT on research. Lenny argues that the internet has enabled quantitative research to happen at scale, but qualitative research has been limited because of the labor-intensive nature of the back-end and analytical aspect. However, technology like ChatGPT is changing this, allowing for more efficient and accurate processing of data, and the opportunity to decouple from the survey in some cases. The ability to scale qualitative research, discussions, and organic conversations with thousands of people, as well as to efficiently process that data is a game-changer. Combining this with other technologies such as text analysts for emotional effect and voice analytics, can unlock immense value in conversations, regardless of the form factor, whether it’s video, text, or voice. They also discuss the implications of such technology to the research industry. It is seen as an exciting, but also a somewhat scary time as it could streamline and even replace some jobs that traditionally have been part of the back-end field operations and research industry.

Viv, Lenny, and Dan discuss the potential of ChatGPT, specifically around the use of summarization. Viv believes that ChatGPT is a game changer because it can help to summarize large amounts of information quickly, making it more efficient and productive. However, she also notes that AI’s potential is limited to assisting with tasks, and it is not likely to replace software developers. Lenny brings up a story about a school in New Jersey that has already put limitations on the use of ChatGPT for testing, writing papers, and other deliverables, highlighting the need for ethical considerations around its use. Dan notes that someone had sent him an email about the same topic, mentioning that the most significant challenge with ChatGPT was the difficulty of making the output well thought out and complete sentences. While the panelists acknowledge the many positive uses for ChatGPT, they also raise concerns about the negative effects it could have if not used responsibly.

The panelists discuss the use of the language model ChatGPT in surveys and the potential for it to negatively impact data quality. The speaker, Viv, mentions that their company, QuestionPro, has implemented a system to detect when ChatGPT is used in open-ended responses and flag those responses for further review. They also mention that they are working to improve the system and will have data on its accuracy within a month. The speaker also mentions that this feature is part of QuestionPro’s data quality process and can be added to or removed from a client’s survey at their discretion.

Viv discusses a separate project run by the company QuestionPro which aims to help non-researchers design surveys by using the language model ChatGPT to generate a list of questions around a certain topic, such as product innovation or usability. The speaker, Viv, suggests that this technology will significantly benefit entrepreneurs who don’t have the budget for a formal research process. Another speaker, Lenny, reflects on the implications of this technology.”

This tech seems to be powering so many new innovations, it’s hard to keep up. Strong ai is capable of both problem solving and performing tasks. Like every new technology it will have its fair share of both virtuous and not-so-virtuous use cases, so this is going to be an important one to watch. Ai technologies are more than science fiction; they are real and the computer science behind today’s ai systems is exponentially important.

I’ll be talking more about this topic on January 18, 2023, at Ray Poynter’s NewMR “trends in Insights 2023” webinar; you can find more info on that here.

Ray recently shared this blog post on ChatGPT.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to check out the conversation hosted by QuestionPro, you can find it here.