How Organizations Can Use AI for Market Research

Concerns about college students using ChatGPT to cheat have given way to excitement over the potential for Generative AI (GenAI) to unlock new, more efficient business processes and alter the way we channel creativity.¹ GenAI is here to stay, and the companies and individuals who are best at leveraging its benefits will thrive.²

Yeshiva University's Professor Travis Tae Oh said, "As with the internet, we will adapt—not by rejecting [GenAI], but by rethinking what counts as meaningful and enjoyable."¹ Learning to harness GenAI for business functions like market research is an essential part of developing the next generation of business leaders, which is the focus of researchers like Professor Oh, who teaches the Leveraging AI for Marketing module of the Customized Online MBA program.

This article explores AI for market research, including examples of how GenAI can be used to gather and analyze market information.

Inside Generative AI Systems

The best-known GenAI systems like ChatGPT or Gemini rely on Large Language Models, or LLMs.³ These complex tools work with text, essentially by the interaction of three key building blocks: data, embeddings and attention.⁴

• Data: This is the vast amount of information fed into the system to enable it to learn; for LLMs, that's a colossal quantity of text
• Embeddings: For a machine to "learn," it must make sense of the data it receives. LLMs convert words into "tokens" and apply a numerical representation to each token, known as "embeddings." Embeddings are essentially a network of numbers connected by semantic meaning, so words with similar meanings have similar embeddings
• Attention: This is the process for evaluating the importance of different tokens, giving the LLM context

Through embeddings and attention processes, LLMs sort data by meaning and context. This process helps the machine develop the predictive capacity to generate its own meaningful text.⁴ LLMs are constantly refined. Developers must address constraints to their systems, such as the issue of static training data⁵ (the information the machine learns from is fixed and liable to become outdated or redundant). There's also a continuous effort to refine LLMs away from delivering probabilistic answers—that is, extremely well-informed guesses based on statistical likelihood rather than actual intelligence.⁶

Can You Use AI for Research?

LLMs and other machine learning models are well established as tools for automated market research. Machine learning models can reveal trends, correlations or anomalies that traditional statistical methods might miss. Popular platforms include Browse AI, which scours the web for market data, and Quantilope, which streamlines survey creation and data analysis.⁷

ChatGPT market research sits alongside more traditional research tools like focus groups and questionnaires. You can ask ChatGPT to summarize what customers in a given market typically value, complain about or struggle with. ChatGPT can also help you brainstorm questions for customer surveys, focus groups or interviews.

Using Generative AI for Market Research

For marketing in the digital age, GenAI is an indispensable resource. AI market research tools can take on a lot of the heavy lifting for researchers, from quickly generating lists of industry competitors to analyzing trends for growth opportunities.

However, the machine can't do all the work. Researchers must scrutinize results, testing them with validity checks and identifying AI "hallucinations" (when the machine makes things up).⁸ They must also pay close attention to the ongoing ethical debates about the security and privacy of individual data in an age where almost everything about us is stored digitally, especially since all that digital information is now being repeatedly analyzed by AI.⁹

AI Market Analysis in Practice

We are surrounded by AI market analysis. For example, content recommendations on Netflix are AI marketing insights derived from customer data.¹⁰

As Professor Oh has noted in his research, GenAI isn't just helpful; it's also fun.¹ You can work with a GenAI app of choice and try your own AI market research. Think of a business idea—such as selling tennis shoes in Minneapolis—and prompt ChatGPT to give you a list of the demographics in the Minneapolis area considered most likely to want tennis shoes, broken down by age and income. The AI tool will generate curated market segmentation just for you.

Chat GPT Market Research Prompting Tips

Get the best out of ChatGPT and other LLMs with effective prompt engineering.¹¹ Be specific with your prompts. Encourage ChatGPT to zero in on your needs by including information about the role, scope and constraints in your question. For example, you might prompt, "Act as a market researcher and show me a list of key demographics in Minneapolis most likely to be interested in buying tennis shoes. Segment the list by age and income."¹²

Don't forget to use reinforcement prompts that encourage the LLM to generate results along the lines you want. That keeps the model on track, continually refining its efforts in the right direction.

A Four-Stage Framework for Research With GenAI

In "New Tools, New Rules: A Practical Guide to Effective and Responsible GenAI Use for Surveys and Experiments Research," Professor Oh and his co-authors describe how GenAI can be deployed in each of the significant phases of market research projects:³

1. Literature Review: "Researchers can use GenAI to explore literature, from conducting broad literature syntheses to extracting key themes and summarizing findings."
2. Research Design: "In the research design stages . . . GenAI systems can offer valuable assistance . . . recognizing linguistic patterns, adapting existing content, and generating new text in a contextually appropriate manner."
3. Study Administration: "GenAI can now enable dynamic, responsive interactions that fluidly respond to participant input. In other words, GenAI can act as a virtual research assistant, engaging participants in naturalistic dialog."
4. Data Analysis and Interpretation: "GenAI systems offer valuable assistance by generating executable code, automating portions of data processing, and helping to streamline and interpret complex analyses."

Accelerate Your Impact by Mastering AI for Market Research

Yeshiva University's Customized Online MBA prepares the next generation of business leaders. With a rigorous curriculum, students will learn how to use AI for market research and lead with emotional intelligence. Explore our program and the admissions process. When you're ready to take your next step, schedule an appointment with one of our admissions outreach advisors.