Amplifying Research With AI

Consultants and investment professionals are under pressure to do more with less—less time, fewer resources, and tighter budgets. That's especially true when it comes to expert interviews and surveys. 

Many of these professionals now use AI to amplify their research efforts. They have discovered that AI doesn't replace the need for research. Instead, it helps them move faster, spend less, and uncover better insights from both qualitative and quantitative sources.

Here's how they are using AI—and how you can too.

More Efficient Expert Interviews  

Expert interviews provide invaluable insights but can be costly and time-consuming. Many professionals use AI as a starting point for researching a topic, as it provides the foundational knowledge that enables them to ask sharper, more relevant questions.

As a result, they can conduct fewer interviews and make each one shorter, more efficient, and more targeted, saving time and effort. This doesn't just let them begin survey-based research sooner, but also helps them form hypotheses and identify the themes they want to explore with quantitative survey data.

A Partner for Survey Design 

Surveys are the best way to gather proprietary, structured, quantitative, and timely data—but they must be well-designed to ensure they run smoothly and collect relevant data from qualified respondents.

Professionals say AI helps them reduce the time it takes to create surveys and ensures they are properly structured and worded. 

For example, IncQuery users can use AI to draft an entire survey based on research objectives—complete with sections, questions, response options, and programming notes. Users can also use AI to revise and improve individual questions.  

Smarter Data Analysis 

One of AI's strengths is its ability to quickly identify patterns in large datasets. Organizations use it to:

• Identify trends and correlations. 
• Point out inconsistencies. 
• Highlight key findings. 
• Generate summaries.

Making it Work For You

Here's how you can take advantage of AI for your research:

For expert interviews, use AI to:

• Provide background information and fill knowledge gaps before interviews.
  
• Summarize the findings and identify trends and patterns across multiple interviews .
  

For surveys, use AI to:

• Generate outlines to help draft new surveys. 
• Generate questions to gather additional context from insights obtained through expert interviews, using AI to analyze interview transcripts and summaries.
• Suggest alternative wording for questions and response options. 
• Identify potential biases or unclear wording.

The bottom line: AI won't do your research for you—but, when you use it well, it can make every part of it easier and faster.

How are you using AI for primary research? Join our community on LinkedIn to share your story.