When we were invited as guests to the “Consumer Behavior” course at the University of Turin to talk about communities and qualitative market research more generally, we wondered what to tell the students.
And the first thought we had was, “What would have changed in our narrative if we had been here just a few years ago?”
From 2018 to the present, and with significant acceleration from 2020, the world of qualitative market research has experienced revolutionary transformations, redefining methods, tools and approaches.
Let's discover them together!
The sudden and unexpected looming of the pandemic in 2020 necessitated an immediate change: finding digital solutions to continue qualitative market research without interruption, but safely at home.
On the one hand, there was the boom of asynchronous forums; on the other hand, experimentation began with online focus groups, which today still remain “side-by-side” with in-person ones.
This shift to digital has profoundly transformed the way we work, and while it has meant new opportunities, from the point of view of flexibility and accessibility, it has also meant new challenges to be faced. Specifically:
✅ Geographically connected targets
In the past, research was conducted in-person, dividing respondents by geographic area. This meant arranging travel or managing multiple moderators spread across the territory.
Today, thanks to online platforms, it is possible to directly compare voices and experiences from all over Italy in real time!
✅ Savings on costs and logistics
Although the platforms entail a cost, the elimination of group rooms, catering and travel expenses has certainly reduced overall costs. In addition, managing simultaneous translations for international clients has become smoother and more affordable.
❌ A more directive style of moderation
Interacting online requires a more structured approach: the moderator needs to guide the conversation more decisively to maintain focus and stimulate engagement, especially if the number of participants is more than 6.
❌ More distractions for respondents
While the home environment eliminates the bias associated with the physical presence of clients and moderators, smartphones, notifications, and PCs are a constant source of distraction…
The recorder role has always been very important in qualitative research, more for focus groups than for individual interviews, because of the ability to follow the flow of the discussion and take accurate notes. Often, the choice of this figure was also made on the basis of knowledge of the topic being discussed.
However, with the advent of AI and automated transcription, this role is becoming less and less central. Yet, as much as AI is certainly a valuable ally in streamlining the work of transcription, we think it is not a good idea to completely replace human intervention. On the contrary, from our experience as researchers, we think it would be important to evaluate on a case-by-case basis whether to rely exclusively on technology or still involve a professional recorder, capable of picking up nuances and details that an AI might miss.
But what are the advantages and limitations of this transformation? Let's find out together.
✅ Greater efficiency in video and audio analysis: AI allows near real-time reading of transcripts of respondents' video or voice multimedia in online forums or digital diaries, thus avoiding the need to listen, one by one, to each recording!
❌ Not suitable for all types of studies: in usability tests, for example, a respondent might say “this button is not clear,” but without contextual annotation, the automatic transcription would lose the real meaning of the observation…
❌ Difficulty in following the flexibility of qualitative interviews: qualitative moderators often adapt questions according to the respondents' discussion progress, but AI is unable to capture these dynamic changes…and might return inaccurate transcripts
❌ Interpretation and recognition errors: if not properly trained, AI may misunderstand key words, difficult terms, or brand names, generating inaccurate or even unintelligible transcripts!
❌ Loss of an important learning stage: once upon a time, young researchers learned moderation techniques by listening to and manually transcribing discussions following focus groups. But with AI and the digitization of focus groups and interviews, this training process is likely to shrink dramatically…
Another major change has seen a shift from classic PowerPoint consumer diaries to dedicated digital platforms, such as Sicché! This digitization has brought with it many benefits, improving data collection and analysis.
✅ An easier experience for respondents
In the past, not all respondents were familiar with PowerPoint. Difficulties in formatting the file, problems with inserting multimedia content, and other complications often discouraged them from filling it out, to the point that some even gave up, preferring to print the file, then manually fill it out and hand it in on the day of the focus group!
With digital platforms, however, the user experience has become more intuitive, smooth and effective. They can, in fact, upload multimedia content (videos, images and supporting descriptive text) several times a day, in a more immediate, simple and direct way. A facilitation that not only also markedly improved respondents' engagement, but also made the sharing of such content more “anchored” in real life experience!
🚀 Greater organization and accessibility
For researchers, too, digital platforms have revolutionized information management, making it more efficient and structured. On Sicché, for example, in the “Analysis and Export” section, it is possible to filter content according to retrieval variables or personas that may have been entered, making it easier to identify patterns and compare collected materials. A visual organization that makes it easier to quickly identify differences between targets and sub-targets, thus optimizing analysis in terms of time and quality!
This transformation is the one that most disturbed us! When we heard about synthetic respondents (and researchers, which we will discuss in a dedicated article!), we could not believe it. Yet, we have already come to this point! But what exactly are they?
According to ChatGPT, synthetic respondents are “artificially generated entities, often based on artificial intelligence, that simulate the behavior and responses of real consumers. They are used to supplement or replace human participants in interviews, especially in contexts where it is difficult or expensive to recruit real people.”
How do they work? Concretely, synthetic respondents are created using AI models trained on demographic and behavioral datasets, so they can simulate responses by adapting to the context of the conversation, in an interactive and predictive way. In fact, by representing “the average” of certain consumer attitudes (as if personas were talking, to be clear), they can help predict future consumer trends or behaviors.
However, although they can help collect data remarkably quickly compared to traditional methods, the limitations are undoubtedly the inability to replicate human emotions and reactions, as well as return data with significant bias if the model has been trained on unrepresentative datasets…
In addition, synthetic respondents are also often associated with issues related to so-called “qualitative at scale,” i.e., the application of qualitative research techniques and methodologies (such as in-depth interviews) on a large scale, i.e., on large samples of participants. The promise, in general, of dedicated tools is that they can gather insights without having to deal with the difficulties and costs associated with managing traditional research groups… But we are not sure that this corresponds to the quality and depth typical of traditional qualitative research (we will address this issue soon as well!)
The last change that is not really a change for us concerns the presentation of results.
In fact, although it is said that PowerPoint has come to its end, supplanted by other tools, in truth we have not yet seen a real shift.
However, tools such as Miro, Figma and Notion, just to name a few in the qualitative world, that offer more dynamic and collaborative ways of visualization have certainly increased. In fact, these tools allow information to be organized more interactively, facilitating teamwork and improving engagement during presentations.
Nevertheless, PowerPoint continues to be a standard, especially in more traditional business settings, a sign that the transition to new formats is still ongoing and not fully established… at least in Italy and for the time being!
Watch the video below and learn how the world of qualitative research is transforming! 🚀
