Dispelling Premature Judgments
“ChatGPT killed the Research Star.” In the fast-paced world of technology and innovation, premature judgments have often proven misleading. Just as radio persevered through the advent of television, research will not be supplanted by Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI). On the contrary, Gen AI has the potential to revolutionize research by unearthing concealed patterns and rapidly generating data-driven insights.
As CXOs face the challenge of driving business growth while optimizing costs in a difficult economic landscape, Gen AI-powered research will play a pivotal role in strategic decision-making. Gen AI can provide valuable insights into novel or unexplored markets, eliminating the need for manual or conventional research methods that incur substantial expenses. By generating precise customer preferences and comprehensive profiles, Gen AI empowers a holistic evaluation of target markets, fueling accelerated growth and expansion. Furthermore, by harnessing Gen AI’s capability to automate data analysis, market researchers can invest time and effort in gleaning insights that can unlock next-level value for the business.
To provide a comprehensive understanding, this article explores three key areas:
The Significance of Research: Trust and Mind Meld
The notion that Gen AI will replace market analysis, presentations and content creation oversimplifies the matter and fails to appreciate the nuanced process of analysis and the crucial role played by analysts. Research buyers, such as Business Heads, Chief Commercial Officers, Regional Sales Heads, Global Strategy Heads, CMOs and COOs, immensely value captivating storytelling and the ability to present unique perspectives to clients, board members, investors and internal stakeholders.
While their information needs vary, their perception of a research provider hinges on the delivery of insights, impactful outcomes and an ability to discern unspoken desires. Data supports this claim, with 54 percent of CXOs consuming content and 83 percent making buying decisions based on that content.1
Notably, the true value of research lies in three essential elements: unlocking imagination and meaning, driving confidence and trust, and transcending complexity to uncover simplicity. The lead analyst plays a critical role in the mind-meld process by connecting the dots, showcasing expertise and transforming complex ideas into comprehensible knowledge. Trust between the buyer and the analyst is crucial for a successful research partnership.
Emergence of the Fourth Phase: Interactivity-led Intelligence
In the realm of corporate dynamics, the evolution of intelligence and analytics has traversed three distinct phases:
Over the past decade, the needle moved toward the computing and exploration of intelligence, driven by technological advancements. However, with the emergence of Gen AI, a fourth approach – we call this Interactivity-led Intelligence – is set to emerge. This represents an unprecedented opportunity to synthesize the strengths from the preceding three approaches. What emerges is a convergence where the focal point pivots back to the pinnacle of creativity and storytelling. This paradigm shift provides a fertile ground for research analysts to fulfil their roles.
Figure 1: The Four Stages of Intelligence Evolution
Research can naturally align itself with these technologies and yield surprising results. Interactivity-led intelligence promises faster delivery, lends itself to better AI avatar / Augmented Reality (AR) storytelling, creates shareable assets, possesses the "wow" factor that research analysts excel at and rapidly develops cost-effective economic analysis.
“Organizations are also demonstrating readiness to re-direct their investments toward extracting and communicating intelligence. A staggering 81 percent of business-to-business buyers seek proactive insights.”2 Simultaneously, modernizing engagement with clients and internal stakeholders and re-configuring the economics of intelligence will become paramount.
The Changing Face of Research
Research is poised to evolve. It demands exploration of alternative intelligence-finding tools, more ingenious methods of assembly, evolved modes of dissemination and the establishment of appropriate expectations and ownership in intelligence consumption. Remember, unused intelligence is wasted intelligence!
The illustration below captures the process and experience of a typical research-to-insight-to-action project before the emergence of Gen AI. Note the various ingredients required to make the desired impact. Presently, delivering research insights relies on low-tech methods such as presentations, documents and reports. The lead analyst, as a critical figure in this process, orchestrates the narrative to position clients or stakeholders for action.
Figure 2: Research-to-Insight-to-Action in the Decision Life Cycle: Pre-Gen AI & Immersive Tech
Generative AI in Research
Throughout several projects this year, our teams have sampled the use of Gen AI. We found that it could significantly reduce the time analysts need to understand new subjects with no prior background. This enabled them to organize the necessary data points much faster. Here is a summary of our observations:
Figure 3: Analyses Construction with ChatGPT and Gen AI
- The meaningful data-gathering phase of a project could be reduced by 25-30 percent.
- However, source verification counteracted this benefit by 15 percent.
- This created greater bandwidth for ideation, iteration and the identification of unique angles to build hypotheses and produce higher-quality analysis.
- We spent 10 percent more time on creatives and storytelling with greater clarity than usual.
- We also noticed an opportunity to define a method to our madness by designing a routine set of activities on which the AI model could be trained.
“Our experience with Gen AI underscored that the benefit extended beyond efficiency; it encompassed the prospect of delivering superior-quality analyses.”
Furthermore, as familiarity with this platform grows over time, we foresee a meaningful shift in the collaborative endeavors of our team members.
Research Delivery – Evolving to a New Paradigm?
Traditionally, corporate research output has relied heavily on executive presentations for client pitches, event updates, strategy documents and internal reviews. Despite facing ridicule, presentations continue to dominate, with many professionals using them as the core medium of storytelling.
We believe research has the opportunity to lead this change. How? Through Interactivity | Immersion | Experience.
Technological developments, such as voice-enabled devices like Alexa3 and Virtual Reality (VR) / Mixed Reality (MR) headsets from companies like Meta and Apple, offer promising options. Even client pitch decks are embracing imaginative storytelling4 as organizations seek to differentiate themselves amid economic constraints and a changing risk-adjusted opportunity cost of increasing capital expenditure in technology development.
Recent developments in AI video generation start-ups also hold potential for re-inventing storytelling, aiming to bridge the economic gap between stylish video communication and PowerPoint. A significant opportunity indeed!
Our revised research-to-insight framework, in a post-Gen AI landscape, envisions these changes while continuing to place the lead analyst as the lynchpin. However, it also incorporates a more prominent role for creative specialists while junior researchers shift their focus to verification and hypothesis development.
Figure 4: Research-to-Insight-to-Action in the Decision Life Cycle: Post-Gen AI & Immersive Tech
The Future Awaits
Like authors, filmmakers, musicians and journalists, research analysts play a critical role in corporate society and beyond. They fulfill the need for opinions that challenge or inspire, provoking profound thought.
The challenge and opportunity for the research profession lie in maintaining imagination, digestibility and emotional impact. CXOs crave fresh and forward-thinking insights, and research must remain agile. Business owners, consultants and service providers can collaborate and harness the powerful combination of analysts, creatives and technologists to achieve a mind meld with customers.
Ready to explore the future of research in the era of Gen AI? Click here to dive deeper.
References:
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Edelman
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Edelman
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CNBC
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Entrepreneur
About WNS Triange:
WNS Triange powers business growth and innovation for 200+ global companies with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Analytics, Data and Research. Driven by a specialized team of over 6000 analysts, data scientists and domain experts, WNS Triange helps translate data into actionable insights for impactful decision-making. Built on the pillars of consulting (Triange Consult), future-ready platforms (Triange Nxt), and domain and technology (Triange CoE), WNS Triange seamlessly blends strategy, industry-specific nuances, AI and Machine Learning (ML) operations, and intelligent cloud platforms.
Driving a futuristic edge are WNS Triange’s modular cloud-based platforms and solutions leveraging advanced AI and ML to provide end-to-end integration and processing of data to actionable insights. WNS Triange leverages the combined strength of WNS’ domain expertise, co-creation labs, strategic partnerships and outcome-based engagement models.