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Let's talk chatbots. The technology around this computer program, designed to simulate human conversation, has seen significant growth in the past 12 months. Brands are developing chatbots to help consumers with everything – from finding their nearest store right through to ordering pizza.
Their potential has also been recognised in our industry. For many years, brands have been using rudimentary versions to assess customer satisfaction via text message. Now, were seeing organisations tapping the latest platform for chatbots, Facebook Messenger, to run more extensive quantitative surveys.
But this may be only the tip of the iceberg. At present, most chatbot functionality is limited: theyre restricted to providing set responses to a fixed number of questions. As such, theyre only suitable for quantitative research. But as they grow more sophisticated, using AI to learn and respond intelligently to the inputs theyre given, their use could well extend to qualitative research.
An AI-powered research chatbot could tailor the questions it asks based on a respondents previous answers, allowing it to gain real depth of insight. This would be a transformational development. We dont see chatbots replacing humans for depth interviews just yet, but they could be used in other types of qualitative research, particularly as they become consumers preferred method for interacting with brands.
Emma Muckersie
Copyright © Association for Qualitative Research, 2018
About the author

Emma Muckersie
Emma is marketing manager at Decidedly (Formerly FreshMinds), an insight and innovation consultancy that helps global brands drive growth across three broad areas: consumer behaviour and market assessment, product development and communications development. A keen blogger, she runs and contributes regularly to the Decidedly blog. Emma is also interested in digital trends and always keen to understand how the latest developments impact on consumer behaviour.
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Emma Muckersie
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Chatbots: the latest addition to our qual toolkit?
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16 articles by Emma Muckersie