{"id":24962,"date":"2018-11-28T11:18:55","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T16:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/?p=24962"},"modified":"2018-11-29T12:04:44","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T17:04:44","slug":"ai-blockchain-automation-changes-ahead-mr-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/ai-blockchain-automation-changes-ahead-mr-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"AI, Blockchain and Automation: Changes Ahead for the MR Ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Technology<\/p>\n

Technology advancements like AI and machine learning will shape the market research industry more than any other innovation has within the past half century. And the rate of acceleration\u00a0and change\u00a0is unlike anything\u00a0we’ve ever seen before. At the 2018 Insights Leadership Conference, a panel moderated by Bonnie L. Breslauer, Chief Customer Officer of DISQO<\/a>, examined whether the market research industry can adapt to this rapid penetration, or if it will hold onto legacy practices, with the good intentions of protecting traditional research methods and the \u201cpurist\u201d approach they represent.<\/p>\n

Or as Breslauer summarized, \u201cAs automation and technology advancements forge ahead, will the MR industry transform or be left behind, chasing the ever elusive \u201cseat at the table?\u201d<\/p>\n

To understand the impact that such technology advancements will have on market research, below are highlights from the Q&A session with our President and Chief Innovation Officer, Steve Mast<\/a>; Isaac Rogers, CEO, 20|20 Research<\/a>; Kristi Zuhlke, CEO, KnowledgeHound<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve talked for decades about researchers fighting for a seat at the table and it\u2019s something Kristi touches on in her response.\u00a0 What\u2019s your take on the research industry and where we are headed?\u00a0 What dynamics are at play that will impact our landscape and the industry\u2019s ability to be relevant?\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve Mast:<\/strong> Today\u2019s proliferation of digital platforms allows everyone to become a researcher and gather customer data.\u00a0New technology such as chatbots is playing a key role in blurring the lines between traditional qualitative and quantitative research and overall, we\u2019re seeing a shift away from \u2018point in time\u2019 research to an \u2018always on\u2019 research model.\u00a0The question now becomes how does the market research industry transform its role to become more strategic and central to business success.<\/p>\n

There are three important trends that\u2019ll be led by the MR industry during this transformation.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Integration<\/strong>: Research-based technology tools and platforms such as video-based Voxpopme<\/a> or automated research platforms like Methodify will be integrated into marketing workflow processes and tie directly into martech platforms like Adobe or Salesforce.<\/li>\n
  2. Reimaging<\/strong>: The research department will be reimaged.\u00a0We\u2019ll see an increase in human-centric teams with research professionals at the heart, charged with bringing the voice of the customer to every aspect of product creation, marketing and operations. Also, we will see sampling in market research reimaged due to blockchain technology and possibly the rise of virtual personas or \u2018digital twins\u2019 that will represent real consumers.<\/li>\n
  3. Decentralization<\/strong>: Automation will decentralize the role of the researcher. Everyone in the company will have access to powerful proven research methods and tools, which means that it will no longer be the sole responsibility of the researcher. Thus, their role can evolve to that of a strategic insights partner for the team.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How are you using AI? What problems are you trying to solve with it?\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Kristi Zuhlke<\/strong>: The power of AI is in expediting data crunching and pattern recognition\u2014patterns that humans either can’t see or simply take us too long to discover. For example, Remesh<\/a>, an AI platform for quantitative\u00a0focus groups, allows a moderator to recognize patterns in responses and ask on-the-fly probing questions. There are obvious merits to AI, yet many remain threatened that it will eliminate our jobs.\u00a0However, if we view AI as an aid in surfacing the data we need faster, we can then use it to our advantage, quickly turning that data into insights that will drive revenue for our companies.\u00a0Ultimately, AI will give market researchers and insights professional a crucial seat at the table.<\/p>\n

    How can companies successfully embrace automation?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Isaac Rogers<\/strong>: Embracing automation, to me, aligns closely with embracing change in general. There tends to be a lot of wait-and-see that occurs when a new technology comes on the scene in our\u00a0space, with MR agencies reluctant to take risks on\u00a0new methods and\u00a0technology suppliers unable to field test and improve their emerging methods without real-world use cases.<\/p>\n

    That said, I have witnessed at least one successful strategy that helped bridge this gap; dedicated R&D budgets from MR agencies and end-clients. When an organization dedicates time and money to partnering with\u00a0emerging technologies, not only do they benefit from being able to shape the way the innovation occurs, but they are also going to be the first to reap the rewards of the newly developed approach.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019m talking about carving off real, spendable dollars towards\u00a0pilot projects and real-world experimentation, not just using this R&D budget to attend webinars and conferences hoping to stay ahead of trends through osmosis. For example, a firm might choose to run side-by-side tests of real projects, with half the work done\u00a0\u201ctraditionally\u201d and the other half\u00a0leveraging new automation methods, working in collaboration with the tech vendor to ensure both are learning from the\u00a0exercise. Firms have also used this budget to pre-fund work with the technology developer in exchange for deep involvement in how the product progresses and having the opportunity to weigh in on the direction of the\u00a0development.<\/p>\n

    I often get the question\u00a0\u201cso how big should\u00a0the budget be?\u201d I don\u2019t pretend to have the right answer, but after spending some time looking at our own processes at 20|20 and asking a few firms who have had success with this approach, budgets tend to be somewhere around 2-5% of revenue. It may sound like a large investment, but with the external pressures facing our industry to modernize and innovate our entire value chain, maybe the better question is how we plan to compete if we\u2019re not making major investments and betting on our own future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Technology advancements like AI and machine learning will shape the market research industry more than any other innovation has within the past half century. And the rate of acceleration\u00a0and change\u00a0is unlike anything\u00a0we’ve ever seen before. At the 2018 Insights Leadership Conference, a panel moderated by Bonnie L. Breslauer, Chief Customer Officer of DISQO, examined whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":24963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59,55,786,51],"tags":[932,931,930,765],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24962"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24968,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24962\/revisions\/24968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}