Chatbots & Virtual Assistants

Adoption of chatbots for market research has risen steadily in recent years, and the current tidal wave of GenerativeAI solutions will no doubt push chatbots onto more shores and further inland. Since the pandemic’s nadir in 2020, use of chatbots among brand-side market researchers has steadily increased from 15% to 24%, according to the Greenbook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) Report. Brand-side insights professionals who focus on analytics more than primary research have a stronger affinity for AI-enabled solutions, and chatbot usage is twice as high among them.

Chatbots can conduct and report quantitative and qualitative market research 24 hours a day and seven days a week. They can be embedded in your website or delivered via mobile apps, and they can even integrate with panels and social media or business platforms. In addition to survey data and text of conversations, chatbot research platforms can collect, analyze, and report audio, image, and video.

Until recently, chatbots have been primarily rule-based, with responses that are essentially pre-defined and triggered by keywords. With the advent of GenerativeAI, however, chatbots can behave more conversationally, personalize the experience, and steer the discussion in novel directions. Each approach has advantages, and you can find technology solutions for either. In fact, there are many different solutions available for different kinds of research, types of data, and needs, such as DIY versus outsourced, reporting, sample sources, and more.

This is an essential event for anyone responsible for identifying new insights as well as anyone else who wishes they had more market insights to guide them. No matter how comprehensive, timely, and cost-effective your current insights process is, your need for new insights will always exceed its capabilities. Whether your critical needs are for more, faster, or less expensive insights (or all three), chatbots are always-on assistants that can explore hard-to-reach nooks and crannies, and technology gives you the power the leverage them as you see fit. Even if your main role does not involve primary research, chatbot research platforms can help you get the insights you need when other resources are unavailable.