In a recent webinar at the Insight Platforms 2024 Analytics & Reporting Summit, Recollective showcased how AI can transform qualitative research analysis, making it faster and more efficient to uncover valuable insights.
Dana Cassady, Recollective's VP of Business Insights, led the session, “AI in Action – Transforming Qualitative Research for More Powerful Insights.” He was joined by Holly Riedlinger and Fiona Macgregor, Principal Consultants from PA Consulting, who shared their experiences using Recollective’s AI tools. Adam Di Tota, Recollective’s Director of Product Management, also joined towards the end of the session for the live Q&A segment.
The panel explored how AI is helping researchers tackle common challenges in qualitative research by making it faster and more efficient to uncover valuable insights, all while keeping the human touch at the heart of analysis. To catch up on the session and get the full details, be sure to watch the on-demand recording on Insight Platforms.
The Role of AI in Modern Qualitative Research
Dana kicked things off by sharing Recollective's vision for AI: enhancing, not replacing, the essential human perspective in research. He discussed four common challenges that researchers face and how AI can provide effective solutions:
Challenge #1: Online platforms allow us to collect more data and from more sources.
Solution: AI processes large datasets quickly, giving researchers a holistic view and making it easier to combine insights from various sources into one cohesive study.
Challenge #2: Even if we know what to investigate, investigating takes time.
Solution: By automating routine tasks, AI frees up time for researchers to focus their expertise where it matters most, allowing them to dive deeper into complex insights.
Challenge #3: Different data sources sometimes conflict and our biases can get in the way.
Solution: AI provides an unbiased perspective, helping researchers spot trends they may have missed and allowing them to nuance their conclusions by examining the root of discrepancies.
Challenge #4: Returning to past work can mean re-doing work already done.
Solution: AI’s reliable memory helps researchers easily revisit and build on previous findings, making it simpler to pick up where they left off and elaborate on past insights.
By addressing these challenges, AI empowers researchers to enhance their work while preserving the critical human touch that qualitative research demands.
Real-World Application: PA Consulting’s Experience with Recollective AI
Next, Holly and Fiona from PA Consulting shared how they’ve been using Recollective’s AI tools to enhance their work with large-scale online communities. They described four key ways that Recollective AI has improved their analysis:
- Validation: AI helps researchers validate their themes by posing questions to the AI and ensuring nothing is overlooked.
- Bolstering Insights: AI uncovers emergent themes, helping researchers identify behaviors, attitudes and preferences that might otherwise remain hidden.
- Enhancing Analysis: With AI, researchers can ensure they've captured a wide range of perspectives, from broad to niche.
- Providing Evidence: AI assists in pulling relevant quotes, images and video snippets to bring insights to life in client reports.
Fiona also noted that Recollective’s AI allows them to design their studies in a way that prioritizes participant experience over ease of analysis, as the AI makes it easier to connect separate components.
Practical Use Cases: AI in Action
Fiona and Holly walked the audience through a series of real-world examples from recent projects, highlighting where Recollective’s AI tools made a difference:
Use Case 1: Ask questions of community as a whole
Fiona shared an example from a spirits project. Typically, analysts conduct qualitative studies manually, working through activities one by one to piece together insights. With Recollective’s AI tool, researchers could ask a broad question—like, “What do participants associate with a given spirit?”—and the AI would quickly gather evidence from various sources, including video transcripts. This method saved time and allowed for a richer analysis, particularly with unstructured data like videos.
Use Case 2: For greater depth and thoroughness
AI also played a key role in helping Holly confirm broader themes while also discovering niche behaviors that might have slipped through the cracks. For example, when exploring customer service barriers in the financial services sector, AI made sure that every potential barrier or benefit was taken into account and backed up with evidence, leading to more comprehensive insights for the client.
Use Case 3: Evidencing key themes
Both Holly and Fiona discussed how AI can enhance insights in the face of conflicting data. Fiona recalled a project where qualitative findings suggested that a brand wasn't seen as "fun," while quantitative data told a different story. By revisiting the qualitative data with the help of AI, they were able to add nuance to their conclusions and provide a more sophisticated understanding of how the brand was perceived.
Use Case 4: Addressing client feedback at speed
Finally, Holly showed how AI can speed up the process of responding to client feedback. After presenting a final report, clients often want more details or a deeper dive into specific demographics. What used to take days of manual analysis can now be accomplished in just a few hours, thanks to AI's ability to quickly sift through data and answer client questions.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Recollective’s AI
Before wrapping up the session, Dana shared a glimpse of Recollective's future AI capabilities. He emphasized the goal of integrating AI across all stages of the research process, from setup to execution and analysis. Some of the key upcoming features include:
- AI Question & Answering Assistant v2: This upgraded tool offers deeper probing and comparison between segments, giving researchers more detailed insights.
- AI-Translated Study Data: Facilitates multilingual studies and allows researchers to confidently expand their global reach.
- AI-Moderated Hybrid Async/Live Activities: Enables participants to engage on their own time while AI ensures research objectives are met.
These features are designed to help researchers move faster and uncover more, all while maintaining the critical role of the human researcher.
Empowering Researchers, Enhancing Results
The key takeaway from the webinar was clear: AI isn't here to replace human researchers in qualitative analysis. Instead, it’s here to support and enhance the fantastic work they’re already doing. At Recollective, we’re committed to creating AI solutions that tackle the common challenges researchers face. Our tools can streamline analysis by validating data sets, bolstering apparent trends, enhancing complicated findings and surfacing evidence throughout the research process.
As researchers embrace AI, we can look forward to its growing role in all project stages, making the path to insight even smoother. By speeding up setup, execution and analysis, Recollective’s AI allows researchers to concentrate on what truly matters: delivering rich, actionable insights to their clients.
Learn More
If you missed the webinar, don’t worry – you can catch the full on-demand recording on Insight Platforms!
Want to learn more about how Recollective's AI capabilities can enhance your research process? Book a demo with us today!
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