Building Human Contact in an Ever Artificial Landscape

Editor’s Note: This commentary is featured in the GRIT Insights Practice Report. The GRIT Insights Practice Report is your #1 guide to brand success in the insights industry, featuring the GRIT Future List, client perspectives, and emerging methodologies. You’ll learn what’s making strides, what trends are worth following, and where your company fits into it all.

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Somewhere amidst the deafening bells and whistles from a vigorous technology evolution, there is an audible and collective sigh of human fatigue. Bombarded with an ever-increasing number of platforms, programs, apps, software, and solutions for every step of the research process, insights providers are ready to establish a new baseline for “back to basics.” We seem to find ourselves with fully loaded toolboxes and an eagerness to shift industry focus back to a more human touch.

The technical renaissance, raging strong, has already left a plethora of ‘tried and true’ and ‘tried but died’ solutions in its’ wake. Researchers, having learned from the latter, will glean more success from the tried and true solutions. This industry temperature will be a test for start-up and new-comer suppliers fighting to stand out among the technical white-noise, and long-standing suppliers that haven’t evolved to deliver greater agility or more diverse and effective solutions. Those suppliers who have established trust by delivering consistent quality, and visibly drive the success of research objectives, will have an upper hand. These will be the tools in the box that stand the test of time. Despite the upper hand, though, these suppliers will also face expectations to become more agile and pursue innovations that continue to deliver faster results, higher quality experience in execution, and lower costs.

Many researchers are going to find themselves at this stage of the game with a strong comfort level with tech and confidence to rely upon DIY solutions. Others will always find value in partnerships that allow them to focus on the research, and leave the tech to the experts. Use what works well and reliably for you in order to create the best opportunities to get to the heart of your respondents.

The need to stay connected to the more human side of research will benefit from growth and awareness in two key areas: one is protecting privacy, and the other is stabilizing expanded connectivity. First, there is a deeper grasp around what “data” in today’s world truly is, and what specific information can be captured about us as individuals. This is accompanied with an increase in data security standards and industry-wide accountability to maintain compliance. We will also see greater laws and regulations surrounding the protections of personal data, in line with standards exhibited in the CCPA and GDPR. Finally, we’ll all benefit from the implementation of 5G networks. We’ll continue to see an increase in overall reach of online connectivity. Improvements in infrastructure world-wide will result in stronger bandwidth in areas previously considered unreliable or too remote. Expanded connection allows for not only expanded reach, but smoother research experiences for participants, researchers, and buyers alike.

Perhaps 20 years from now we’ll be talking about a return to the simpler days of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Machine Learning. With such a constant surge of tech development in research over the last 20+ years, and still going strong, it’s natural to want some fresh air with the living and breathing, but I acknowledge it may not be long lived. Our insatiable determination to continue creating, improving, and exploring will soon have us back to in the shop to find what new tools we have room for in our boxes.