Think Before You Prompt: Research Objectives and AI

You've certainly noticed how AI is becoming indispensable in virtually every part of business, and survey-based research is no exception. Using AI is relatively easy, but using it well takes a little preparation and knowledge.

Simply put, the quality of the content you get depends greatly on the quality of the prompt you provide.

Before heading straight to AI, take time to think through your research objective and target audience. With this groundwork, you’ll get better results.

Here’s how you can get started.

First, Determine Your Research Objective

Before you can begin gathering data points, it’s important to understand exactly what you intend to learn from the research. The success of your survey project depends on having a strong research objective. This is the foundation from which every other part of your research is built. It’s especially important if you plan to use AI to help design your survey because the more detailed your prompt, the better the output.

A strong research objective should be in the form of a short statement and follow the SMART framework by being:

• Specific: Clearly pinpoint an aspect or angle of the subject you intend to explore.
• Measurable: Define how results and success will be quantified.
• Achievable: Confirm your objective is attainable with available resources.
• Relevant: Ensure the survey supports your broader research or purpose.
• Time-bound: Set a specific date or period for achieving the objective.

Example

Suppose you need to conduct due diligence for a client who wants to buy a company that provides procurement software to small medical practices. In that case, your research objective might be:

To assess the target company’s competitive position, customers’ buying intentions, and key purchasing criteria for medical practices below $30 million in annual revenue, through a survey of approximately 125 decision-makers and influencers, with descriptive job roles consisting of practice managers, administrators, and owners.

Second, Define Your Audience

Once you’ve solidified your research objective, you’ll be able to determine the best audience for your survey. To ensure the data you gather is representative, think about the criteria you require of your audience.

Consider these factors:

• Demographics: age, gender, geography, income, household size, education
• Psychographics: lifestyle, values, motivations, pain points, brand perception
• Behaviors: usage frequency, recency, channel preferences, purchase history
• Firmographics: company size, revenue, job level, responsibilities, and industry

Start by acknowledging your target market and then further narrow the pool to those who fit the research criteria. The more detailed you can be with your respondent profile, the better. A well-defined respondent profile will help guide your screener questions (AI can help write these for you) and filter out anyone who won’t provide relevant data.

Example

If the target market intends to include those who make or influence procurement software decisions at small medical practices, it’s not enough to just ask for the audience’s job role. We want to confirm we’re surveying those who possess decision-making power. Based on the research objective, we should ask:

What is your role in procurement?

• I am the final decision-maker
• I share responsibility in decision-making
• I provide input but do not make the final decision
• I am not involved in procurement
• Other (please specify)

Which of the following best describes how you handle procurement and ordering today?

• We use a system designed specifically for medical practices
• We use a general procurement system
• We rely on our clients’ systems and websites
• Other (please specify)

Then, Put It All Together

Why the Right Prompts Matter

Once you have a clear research objective and a well-defined audience, you can leverage AI to draft your entire survey—sections, questions, response options, and programming notes. Including these details in your prompt will help AI give you a better baseline.

The steps above are critical here because:

• Without a strong research objective, the survey may look polished, but it doesn’t answer the right questions. They could be too vague or not aligned with your research purpose.
• Without a defined target audience, the questions A produces may not successfully screen out unqualified respondents or resonate with the right people.

The more information you feed AI, the more precise the output. When it’s given constraints, you’ll get better-matched, higher-quality responses.

AI Is the Starting Point, not the Finish Line

Think of AI as a first draft generator or perhaps a helpful collaborator but unreliable author. You are still the expert and should use your best judgment when reviewing the survey. Remove questions that don’t directly align with your objectives (to make the survey more concise) and ensure each question is easy to understand (for the human reading it). Don’t be afraid to leverage AI as you review the content to rephrase individual questions or clarify logical sequences as well.

You can use AI to check for neutrality and test for biases in specific questions. It may help you uncover something you wouldn’t have noticed on your own.

Use it to help you segment potential respondents and even suggest appropriate communication channels for your audience. It’s ideal to jumpstart the brainstorming process and open your mind to different possibilities.

While you can’t rely solely on AI to conduct your research studies, you can use it to accelerate the process from idea to execution. As the domain expert, you must provide strategic direction for the survey, which means thinking through the research objective and target audience. But once you incorporate these details into your AI prompts, the technology can act as your partner and sounding board, and help you execute your survey in a hurry.