AI is Revolutionizing Consumer Insights and Business Must Prepare for the Future

By Enock Wandera

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how organizations do business, no matter what industry they’re in. The new technology is disrupting traditional business processes, causing a digital transformation, reducing waste, and cutting overhead costs.

In fast-changing environment where brands struggle to stay ahead by developing innovative products and services, detecting, and predicting trends ahead of the competition is necessary. That’s where social data and artificial intelligence come in.

AI is revolutionizing the social market research industry by providing more cost-effective, fast, and efficient ways to collect, analyze, and interpret data from social media platforms, online forums, and other digital sources. With AI, businesses can get real-time insights that can help them respond quickly to changing market conditions and consumer behavior.

But many companies still think that AI-enabled consumer insights are limited in scope and short term. They see the high cost of development and deployment and aren’t sure that AI is right for their businesses.
Recent studies, however, predict an exponential growth of the global AI market research industry driven by increasing demand for more accurate and real-time market insights.

A 2020 report from Grand View Research titled AI in Market Research Market Size, Share and Trends Analysis Report by Application (Advertising & Media, Healthcare, Retail), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 – 2027” estimates that the global AI in market research industry will reach USD4.05 billion by 2027, driven by the increasing adoption of AI-powered tools and technologies by businesses across various industries.

A 2021 report from ResearchAndMarkets.com titled "AI in Market Research Market by Offering, Application, End-user, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2027" also predicts that the global AI in market research industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25.2% from 2021 to 2027, driven by increasing demand for more accurate and real-time market insights.

These studies and many others suggest that AI is rapidly transforming the market research industry by providing businesses with more accurate, real time, and personalized insights into consumer behavior and market trends.

Businesses that have adopted AI-enabled market research are gaining a competitive advantage by getting more accurate, timely, and actionable consumer insights and market trends.

These businesses recognize the need for better consumer intelligence that will allow them to explore their markets, spot unmet needs, and mitigate brand health risk, but many still need to make the case for the new solution.

But this is not to say that AI-enabled research is free of challenges.  A 2020 study published in the International Journal of Market Research titled “Artificial Intelligence and Market Research: Opportunities and Challenges” examines challenges of adopting AI-powered tools and technologies.

For instance, the study points out that AI algorithms rely on large amounts of high-quality data to function effectively and if the data used to train AI algorithms is of poor quality, the insights generated by the algorithm may be inaccurate.
The use of AI in market research also raises concerns about data privacy and security making it imperative for companies to ensure that they are collecting and storing data in compliance with applicable regulations and that the data is secure.

Other challenges border on bias as AI algorithms may perpetuate existing biases in the data they analyze. This can lead to inaccurate insights and discriminatory practices. AI algorithms also can only analyze data that has been inputted into the system. This means that market researchers must ensure that they are asking the right questions and collecting the right data to ensure that the insights generated by AI are relevant and accurate.

Barring the challenges associated with AI adoption in market research, such as data privacy concerns and the need for skilled professionals who can effectively use and interpret AI-powered tools and technologies, AI-enabled market research is a novel concept worth investing in for the various reasons.

Historically, social listening and monitoring have been used by marketers to keep an eye on what consumers are saying about the brand, get a pulse on general sentiment, and market more effectively. Today’s applications of consumer intelligence stretch far beyond traditional use cases and impact every stage of the customer lifecycle. The insights play a more strategic role in broader initiatives like understanding shifting behaviors and emerging models in a post-COVID era.
Real-time AI-enabled consumer insights provide the necessary data sources to enable businesses to find answers to critical issues like how a brand is perceived, how campaigns are performing, and which trends are impacting the market and who influences them. AI further helps brands gain insights into unmet consumer needs and where there are whitespace opportunities.

With AI-enabled consumer intelligence programs, businesses can cut across internal data silos in social listening, customer relationship management, voice of the customer, customer feedback management, and more to create a single accurate source of truth - and reduce duplication of work across teams.
What’s more is the ability to create room for personalization. AI-powered tools can help researchers analyze data on an individual level, providing insights that can be used to personalize marketing messages and product offerings to specific target audiences.

Those are the reasons why businesses looking to enhance consumer-centricity and attain higher productivity among other things are increasingly using AI consumer intelligence to understand new markets, new audiences, and launch new offerings.

With the understanding that AI-enabled market research will continue to reshape how brands incorporate consumer insights into everyday decision-making, the challenge is how brands should prepare for the future.

It is crystal clear that getting the pulse of consumers in 2023 and beyond will require new (AI-powered) tools and new skills. The role of AI in insights, marketing, and innovation is only going to expand, so teams need to prepare now to coordinate and consolidate efforts around a single source of truth and track emerging channels and data sources needed to get the full picture of consumers.

How individual brands adopt and roll out AI-enabled consumer insights will, however, depend on their focus, functional needs, and ultimately, their current digital and data maturity. Orienting your plan to where you are in the journey towards better consumer intelligence is also critical.

Before making a software investment, businesses need to consider which path suits their resources and insights aspirations.   

For brands struggling to find qualified tech talent to support insights initiatives, they’ll have to lean on partners to fill gaps and support regional data collection and applications. This is where hybrid AI Consumer Insight providers step in, to bring scale and substance-something which is only possible from integrated human-machine teams.

Businesses must therefore prepare to choose a trusted partner that brings data science and social intelligence expertise.

Ipsos has developed an AI-enabled consumer intelligence platform, Synthesio, to enable businesses make consumer-centric decisions at scale by collecting, structuring, and analyzing billions of online conversations.

The platform helps brands to understand their ever-changing consumer by revealing the specific language patterns defining and driving the online conversation, benchmark and track the impact of online conversations against business goals and brand performance. From the insights and innovate their product and marketing strategies by surfacing new and emerging needs.

By tapping into AI-enabled consumer insights companies can make better informed decisions, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and drive growth and profitability.

**The author is the Chief Client Officer, Client Organization at Ipsos in Kenya