Founder and Chairman of DJS Research Ltd (Employee-Owned) | EOT Independent Trustee Director
Many thanks Ray Poynter - useful information here as usual. For me I don’t see what all the fuss is about in terms of criticism. It’s just another methodology for our tool kit and hopefully as you say it creates more research and widens the market. I’m not sure I agree though with your comment synthetic vs CATI (CATI is still thriving from what I see). It reminds me when online research came out and all the comments that it would replace CATI/face to face. Look at the situation now with panels!!! There will always be a need to speak with REAL people!!! #marketresearch #mrx
At the intersection of work, fun & discovery, and woke. My coda: "Be kind, keep learning, share knowledge, enjoy life, and try to make a little money along the way".
At most conferences and events, we are seeing a growing number of examples of Synthetic Data, in its many forms and versions, being used for real projects. However, there still seems to be a body of thought that promotes unscientific criticism of this approach. This sort of criticism is likely to hold some people back from realizing the potential benefits and could cause real commercial damage to those who follow it blindly. I have post my thoughts on the current situation at https://lnkd.in/e72E7MVz My View is that synthetic data in all of its forms (boosts, personas, digital twins etc) is being used by a wide range of smart clients. These clients have worked out where the current options can be used and where they should be avoided. The key benefits these clients are getting are speed and the ability to conduct research that might not have been done otherwise. I get a sense that synthetic data is already bigger than CATI as a medium. I suspect that in a couple of years we might see 10% to 20% of projects using some level of synthetic data. Clearly there are things that the current synthetic data can’t do. We see repeated trials making comments about the weakness of synthetic data in capturing and replaying empathy. Buyers need to be careful: they need to check that what they are buying is fit for purpose and evaluate systems.
Ray Poynter
3d
CATI and face-to-face both lost a massive amount of business to online they went from 90% of surveys to about 3% each (ESOMAR Global market research report). However, for the last three or four years it has been clear that the remaining CATI and F2F providers are doing well. The providers of high quality research are now broadly in scale with the demand for this high quality research. I suspect it will occasionally go up a bit, or down a bit, but I doubt that synthetic data will have any impact on CATI or F2F. I only referred to CATI as an indicator of scale, not as an indication of direct competition. One area where AI will have an impact on CATI is AI making the phone calls. One interesting route is that several companies are trialing using humans to call people and then handing the call off to a bot - something which is compliant with the laws/rules in many countries. Ennio Armato, James Endersby (Opinium)
Sensible comment. It's another tool, but I don't see it being as big as online panels are. There is still a place for more traditional methodologies too. Bigger than CATI? Not sure at this moment in time, but it definitely has the potential to be so, Not involved in. CATI at all in my present position but I would think it's far better for targeting tough B2B targets than synthetic sample?
I second that Danny Sims (FMRS) re: CATI. I also think there’ll be (already is) a circling back for organisations to want, and need, to talk to their customers human to human! every methodology has its place…as you say…it’s about ensuring you’re using the right tool for the right job!