In 2020, Market Research Will See Shorter Surveys and the Incorporation of AI into the Data Collection Process. It is estimated that 30-50% of surveys are now taken on mobile devices, and yet many survey platforms lack the ability to adjust the questions to be mobile-friendly. In other words, the user experience is lacking. Have you ever taken a survey on your phone or gone to a website where it clearly is not mobile compatible? The font is too big and the website doesn’t automatically resize, and all of these issues create an immense amount of frustration to the user. This interaction results in people discontinuing the survey or not even starting it because they are not on a laptop or desktop. We will continue to see survey programs and software make a shift towards mobile compatibility or they will run the risk of losing business.

We are also seeing growing fatigue among respondents with longer surveys. Time is valuable and in a “busy” culture, surveys over fifteen minutes see higher dropout rates. A way to combat this will be shorter surveys that pop up on websites or on phones after a purchase. Some of these will be chatbot interactions which will receive feedback and insights in real-time. These shorter, micro surveys will make data collection a more automated and seamless process.

Lastly, artificial intelligence in research will also contribute by effectively analyzing open text responses – saving researchers time and creating more value for clients. Currently, researchers code open-ended responses into categories or buckets, but if AI could do this for researchers, it would be a much more time efficient process. Another hope is that AI will be able to measure the sentiment of responses which can help marketers know if the response if positive or negative.