Ep 14: AI in Market Research – Is it a fraud, a participant, or an interviewer? Dectech Discusses

Welcome to Dectech’s podcast, Predicting People! In this fourteenth episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, tackle one pressing question: is AI about to disrupt traditional market research? They discuss three possible ways AI could be influencing the industry, including the rise of AI bots affecting survey responses, the increasing use of large language models as synthetic research participants or “digital twins,” and the emergence of AI-powered interviewers that might, in time, reduce reliance on human qualitative researchers.

Drawing on academic literature, real-world case studies, and over two decades of hands-on experience at Dectech, Henry and Nick weigh the promise and the pitfalls of each development. They consider the commercial pressures encouraging rapid adoption of AI, and speculate on what the next wave of AI could mean for how businesses understand their customers.