Evaluation Guide for Generative AI Market Research Solutions: Get the Benefits without Falling for AI Hype
What insights and CX pros need to know when exploring generative AI tools for insights: the essential features and capabilities to boost your insights discovery, efficiency, and storytelling abilities.
Is AI the innovation of the 21st Century?
Every generation has a spark of innovation that has the potential to change the world as we know it — think of the impact of steel, the combustion engine, the internet, and now generative AI. This new technology could be the steam engine of the 21st century, giving us speed and efficiency while lightening the load of what was once tedious, manual work.
Given the benefits of AI, it’s no surprise that solution providers have jumped on the chance to quickly bring these capabilities to their offerings. Now, the market is flooded with “AI-powered” tools claiming to revolutionize workflows and solve your problems at unprecedented speeds. It’s up to discerning insights and CX professionals like yourself to separate the real deal from the hype. This guide is tailored to help you navigate the sea of insights platforms that claim to have best-in-class AI, to ensure you pick one that will deliver on the promise to enhance both your efficiency and the quality of your work.
Addressing the Elephant in the Room: The Challenges of Generative AI
The allure of generative AI for insights is undeniable. However, Market Research Institute International’s (MRII) latest report surfaces key risks and challenges that could limit widescale adoption, including potential bias in algorithms, privacy and security, ethical concerns, and loss of human judgment. Naturally, these issues and challenges call into question the level of trust that should be invested in AI-generated insights.
Beyond the Hype: How to Find Trustworthy AI-Powered Tools
Researchers shouldn’t have to compromise—balancing efficiency with accuracy should be a given, not a choice. And yes, it’s achievable to harness generative AI in a way that’s both transparent and trustworthy. At Canvs AI, we’ve been making this happen for Insights and CX pros from leading brands, guiding them daily in leveraging AI to transform unstructured data into actionable insights.
“Trust is the number one barrier to realizing the incredible potential of generative AI for consumer insights – insights leaders need to understand the source of any AI-generated insight to trust their reputation on it,” said Kristi Zuhlke, principle of Generative AI for Insights. “With its latest release, Canvs AI sets the bar for high-trust AI by incorporating interactive citations and quantification, along with full transparency to the source material. This is exactly the approach insights teams need to make AI a core part of their workflows.”
Since the introduction of its insights platform in 2018, Canvs has prioritized trust, transparency, and privacy within all AI capabilities. This commitment has given Insights and CX leaders the confidence to rely on AI Story Assist, the generative AI research assistant in Canvs, to answer over 50,000 business questions using insights from their unstructured text. But how did we manage to instill such a high level of trust in our AI? Well, we stick to a pretty strict set of criteria, which we believe every researcher should consider when picking an AI-powered text analysis tool:
- Transparency: can you validate the findings?
- Quantification methodology: can you understand what drives the analysis?
- Proprietary, closed-domain data focus: is it focused only on your data?
- High-volume scalability: can it handle large data sets?
- Iterative question-asking: can it support follow-up questions?
- Performance: can it keep pace with your needs?
Setting Up For Success: Essential Features and Capabilities
1. Seamless Data Imports
An effortless data import process is crucial. The platform should accommodate various data sources and volumes, ensuring a seamless start to your insights journey.
Questions to ask:
- Does the platform support imports from multiple sources and source types?
- Does the platform allow you to continuously add data to existing projects?
2. Uncover Insights and Explore Connection
AI-powered platforms unlock new insights previously constrained by resources. A robust analytical toolkit is essential for uncovering critical insights.
Questions to ask:
- What lenses of analysis are built into the platform to support insights discovery?
- Does the platform support filtering and crosstab analysis?
3. Customize your Experience
No one knows your business and market like you do. Your AI solution should allow you to customize the output based on your needs, expertise, and perspective. Customization is key to ensure whatever platform you select can ebb and flow as your research needs change and scale.
Questions to ask:
- Does the platform support the ability to build custom, repeatable rules that work alongside AI to personalize analysis based on the needs of your business/use case needs?
- Does the platform offer the ability to edit labels of topics, themes, emotions, and categories across analysis?
4. Share Reports and Data-Driven Stories
Analyzing data and uncovering insights is just the start, getting your research off the shelf and into the hands of your stakeholders is critical. A great tool should aid in the process of building your narrative and effortlessly export your data to a format that you can leverage.
Questions to ask:
- Does the tool offer full-fidelity data exports including complete analysis, pre-built pivot tables in Excel, customizable PowerPoint slides, and narrative story cards?
- Does the platform support direct export to popular BI tools like PowerBI and Tableau?
5. Guided Onboarding and Support
Your support experience can make or break your return on investment with a platform you choose, a great platform should offer a great onboarding plan, support materials, and help when you need it!
Questions to ask:
- What does the onboarding plan and level of support look like?
- Post onboarding what can we expect for resources and ongoing support?
- How can we get our historical data into the platform?
Resources to Help
Navigating the AI insights platform terrain requires a discerning eye to separate substantive tools from the hype. This guide, complemented by our detailed evaluation scorecard, provides a solid foundation for making an informed decision. For a closer look at how Canvs measures up, download our scorecard here.
By prioritizing transparency, reliability, and the right features, you can select an AI insights platform that not only meets but exceeds your expectations, ensuring your insights drive meaningful action.
Canvs works with elite insights teams to make consumer empathy a superpower through the magic of AI, and we’d love to work with you. Reach out to learn more and schedule a demo.
