Just like any other business process, market research stands to benefit from the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology. For some professionals working in the field of research and intelligence, robots are a real and present danger to their livelihoods. However, nothing could be further from the truth. This kind of technology actually helps skilled workers become more valuable by taking the robot out of the person.
To prove how valuable technology can be, here are three key benefits of automation for market research.
1. Automation Removes Internal Barriers
Research teams can be viewed as barriers to critical intelligence for stakeholders who want timely insights. By automating aspects of market research, you remove that perceived barrier and instead of being a roadblock to information.
In this scenario, researchers are able to collaborate more and serve in a more consultative role, working alongside their peers to do what they do best: turn information into actionable intelligence.
2. Improves Research Accuracy
Automating basic, low value research tasks, especially for secondary online research, significantly improves accuracy and speeds up data collection. By using robotic process automation (RPA) algorithms and outsourced solutions, your research team saves hour a week on low value tasks and has a much deeper well of information to work with.
The risk of missing key insights is also minimized because the bots are able to scour millions of sources based on key intelligence topics, key competitors and companies. All of this can be done in a matter of minutes instead of hours, which is something a human simply can't do; and also doesn't need to do.
3. Encourages Deeper Analysis
When done manually, gathering information is a major burden for market research teams. By most estimates, 80% of researchers time is spent on basic information gathering and curation. That leaves very little time for critical analysis and reporting.
Whether it's primary or secondary research methods, automation has the ability to curate relevant findings for researchers and stakeholders. Through the automation of simple tasks like manually importing survey results, transcribing interview notes or going through every page of a competitor's website, researchers have so much more time to analyze findings and work with business leaders on the right response.
How to Get Started
Curious to learn more about how you can integrate technology into your research process? Read our post about the different ways to use AI and automation for market research.