Sponsor will help me make a decision. And sometimes it just technology can assist group moderation or a means generating a bit of stuff, rather than a really homemade video can make a telling point. The result robust argument. is Qual 3.0, a synthesis of automation where it works That bit of stuff might mean a few video vox pops, best (for recruitment, for example), but shaped and for example, devoid of the context in directed by people. which they were collected. Or huge The researcher now needs to be adept amounts of information collected from at bringing together different information online communities, but without any and data sources, filtering out the signal Counterintuitively, sense of how well those views from the noise, putting it into a context as AI improves, it represent the insights and opinions of human understanding, and producing has not lessened of community members. a strategy. At its best, it is a valuable the reliance on Fawcus argues that many clients have skill that is not matched by technology. human skill learned from experience that they can Nor is it matched by other disciplines, get lots of information very cheaply, but Fawcus says. not necessarily make better decisions from it but this doesnt mean rejecting all forms of Better together automation. Nor does it mean that researchers should At its most basic level, the combination of mind and set themselves up as Luddites. One of their functions, machine can simply mean reallocating tasks where he argues, is to use the baseline skills of moderation, they are best done a sort of basic optimisation of or data analysis, or storytelling, to identify where work. Alex Wheatley is director of digital and data 30