The Generative AI Revolution
Harnessing the future
The rise of generative AI over the past few years marks a technological revolution, akin to the advent of personal computers and the internet.
This transformation is no fleeting trend; it’s a fundamental shift that’s changing the way we work, create and connect with the world.
The experience of 2024 illustrates just how its capabilities are accelerating, promising to redefine the boundaries of innovation. In years to come, we’re likely to look back and wonder how we ever functioned without these powerful tools.
Initial reactions to generative AI were marked by an outpouring of enthusiasm. Many saw it as a revolutionary force, ready to transform our world overnight. While the initial buzz has since died down, the last twelve months have showed us how the potential for change remains as strong as ever.
The power and the peril: navigating the risks of generative AI
With these incredible opportunities come significant risks. Our Ipsos AI Monitor reflects a dual sentiment: while 53% of people worldwide are excited about AI-powered offerings, 50% say AI makes them nervous.
Meanwhile, in the business world, concerns revolve around intellectual property, data security, misinformation and ethical use.
'Hallucination', where AI produces results that appear initially convincing but prove to be factually incorrect, was famously the Cambridge Dictionary word of the year for 2023. And one of the lessons we’ve taken from 2024 is the need to always be mindful of those ‘inherent biases’, where AI-generated insights lack the nuance and diversity of human understanding.
Researchers and research users need to navigate these complexities to responsibly harness the benefits of AI.
The wonder and the worry of AI:
"Products and services using AI make me excited"
Responsibility matters
To mitigate the risks and maximise the benefits of gen AI, we’ve developed an evaluation framework here at Ipsos to guide us. It focuses on three core pillars: truth, transparency, and trust.
1. Truth: Rigorous validation of AI-generated outputs is paramount. Human expertise remains crucial in assessing the accuracy and relevance of AI insights.
2. Transparency: Understanding how AI arrives at its conclusions is essential. We must challenge the ‘black box’ nature of some AI systems and demand explainability.
3. Trust: Ethical considerations should be at the forefront of AI implementation, to ensure fairness, compliance with legal regulations, and responsible data handling.
The combination of AI's computational power with human creativity can achieve remarkable results.
The HI + AI partnership
The true magic of generative AI lies in its synergy with human intelligence (HI).
By leveraging AI's computational power together with human creativity and critical thinking we can achieve remarkable results.
And, in our profession of market research, this partnership is already allowing us to analyse vast amounts of data, identify emerging trends, and develop innovative solutions with unprecedented efficiency.
Prompt engineering and the art of asking the right questions
We’ve found prompt engineering to be a crucial aspect of working with generative AI. This involves crafting precise and effective prompts to elicit the desired outputs from the AI. The ability to ask the right questions has always been a core skill in market research, and it’s now translating directly into the realm of AI interaction.
This year we’ve been struck by how well-crafted prompts, sometimes spanning multiple pages, can unlock the full potential of generative AI and generate truly thought-provoking results.
A catalyst for innovation and transformation
No surprise then, that McKinsey’s global analysis finds 65% of businesses now regularly using gen AI, twice the level in 2023.
At Ipsos we’ve been deploying gen AI in a whole range of areas, from knowledge management platforms to persona bots, and from digital twins to advanced signal detection tools. All of which is helping us and our clients to transform data into actionable intelligence, driving growth and success across diverse sectors.
There’s an element of democratisation in all of this, with more powerful insights becoming available to more teams, enabling marketing professionals, C-level executives, and other decision-makers to make smarter and faster decisions with greater confidence.
Generative AI is not just a tool.
It's a catalyst for innovation and transformation. It enables us to do things faster, better, and more creatively.
Where next? The synthetic data oasis
Synthetic data may not be a new concept, but its use in AI applications is a potential game-changer, enhancing our ability to simulate real-world scenarios.
This approach offers new possibilities for data analysis and interpretation, while safeguarding privacy.
We’ve been busy exploring how it can be leveraged to create robust models that mirror real-life complexities, providing clients with insights that are both comprehensive and ethically sound.
But, like any oasis in a vast technological desert, it comes with the risk of mirages. Take a look at our POV 'Synthetic Data: From hype to reality' for an exploration of the promises and pitfalls of synthetic data, guiding us towards responsible adoption and impactful applications.
The future is bright
So, the integration of generative AI into the insights industry isn’t just a trend; it's a necessity. 2024 has illustrated in so many ways how this powerful technology can revolutionise how we collect, analyse, and interpret data.
Combined with a commitment to responsible implementation, we can unlock the full potential of generative AI and usher in a new era of insights-driven decision making.
The future of insights is bright, powered by that dynamic partnership between human intelligence and artificial intelligence.
Further reading
