The Advantages of AI Rapid Insights Sessions: Bridging Qualitative Depth with Quantitative Scale
Clients have recently asked me to explain the advantages of AI Rapid Insights Sessions over traditional qualitative and quantitative research. AI Rapid Insights Sessions offer significant benefits, including real-time AI-powered analysis, increased speed and efficiency, and the ability to scale qualitative research to a quantitative level, all while maintaining depth of insight.
AI RAPID INSIGHTS SESSIONS
In simple terms, AI Rapid Insights Sessions gather responses from 10 to 1,000 participants during a rapid 20-minute to one-hour session. AI is used to provide real-time analysis of both open- and closed-end data on a question-by-question basis. These sessions represent a mature technology and have been used over the past six years at Q2 Insights. They blend the depth of qualitative insights with the scale of quantitative data.
It is important to note that responses are provided by live human participants, not by large language models or generative AI. In addition to answering both open-end and close-end questions, participants vote on open-end responses, revealing group consensus in real time. This allows researchers and clients to quickly identify priority ideas.
KEY ADVANTAGES OF AI RAPID INSIGHTS SESSIONS
Flexibility, Scalability, and Efficiency
AI Rapid Insights Sessions enable simultaneous engagement with large numbers of participants, resulting in a wide range of perspectives. For example, a one-hour session with 100 respondents yields 100 hours of data collection and including one-hour of individual “airtime.” By contrast, a 10-person focus group provides an average of just 12 minutes of participation per person. (Q2 Insights does not typically have more than eight in a Focus Group. Ten was used in this example for easy understanding.)
The AI processes the input during the session, and a dashboard of results is immediately available at the end. This level of speed and volume of data is simply not possible with traditional methods.
There are also substantial cost and time efficiencies. AI Rapid Insights Sessions reduce or eliminate many traditional costs such as moderator hours, facility fees, travel, transcription, and manual analysis. Because the platform is dynamic, moderators can probe or add new questions in real time during the session.
While sessions are not conducted in multiple languages simultaneously, the platform does support multi-language capabilities, allowing for global reach.
Enhanced Participant Engagement
AI Rapid Insights Sessions encourage more candid feedback by allowing participants to respond anonymously in comfortable, familiar environments. The virtual format removes the social pressures and artificial environment of focus group facilities, where participants may self-censor in front of a one-way mirror or unfamiliar observers.
Anonymity and relaxed settings make these sessions particularly valuable for sensitive topics, including mental health, substance use, sexuality, financial strain, trauma, or abuse.
The interactive nature of the sessions and the ability to compare one’s responses to those of others in real time fosters greater engagement. This format also helps mitigate survey fatigue, a common challenge in traditional research.
Real-Time Analysis and Insights
AI Rapid Insights Sessions deliver real-time analysis, enabling moderators to identify themes and adjust lines of inquiry on the fly. This responsiveness is a significant improvement over traditional qualitative research, which requires lengthy transcription and analysis.
AI-generated visualizations such as word clouds and sentiment charts make it easy to interpret and share results immediately.
Blend of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
AI Rapid Insights Sessions support both open-ended and numerical questions, offering a hybrid approach that combines the strengths of qualitative and quantitative methods. The methodology allows for qualitative insights at a quantitative scale, something that has historically been difficult to achieve.
Actionable Insights Instantly Followed by a Detailed Report
After each session, clients have instant access to a detailed question-by-question dashboard, which remains available for two years. An AI-powered analysis tool is also available for immediate decision-making support.
What sets Q2 Insights apart is our integration of human researcher expertise. While the AI provides real-time analysis and structure, human researchers step in to interpret the nuances and dig for deep insights by connecting seemingly unrelated ideas, applying empathy, reading emotional subtext, and uncovering implications that machines alone cannot identify.
AI and human expertise work in tandem. The AI processes information at incredible speed and scale, and the human researcher brings intuition, creativity, and contextual understanding. Together, they create a deeper, more strategic understanding of consumer behavior and motivation.
When Traditional Qualitative Research is Preferable
There are times when traditional qualitative research remains the better option. These include projects requiring multi-sensory evaluations (such as smell, taste, or touch), physical product testing, contextual or in-situ research, and studies involving heavily regulated subject matter.
Kirsty Nunez is the President and Chief Research Strategist at Q2 Insights a research and innovation consulting firm with international reach and offices in San Diego. Q2 Insights specializes in many areas of research and predictive analytics and actively uses AI products to enhance the speed and quality of insights delivery while still leveraging human researcher expertise and experience.
