Technology Virtual engagement Generative artificial intelligence can boost survey engagement, research commissioned by beer maker Heineken and carried out by MMR Research has found. Liam Kay-McClean reports T he metaverse. ChatGPT. OpenAI. Chatbots. Apple Glasses. Google Bard. Much has been written in recent months about the potential transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) on the market research industry and wider society. It has become increasingly hard to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to opinions on the subject, with little evidence as to what the likely role either technology will play in our daily lives and in the workplace. Heineken wanted to see what impact technologies such as AI had on engagement with consumers. To try to address the evidence gap, MMR Research and Heineken set up an experiment to see how AI technologies affected market research surveys and whether they could enhance the reach of market research, especially with a younger audience. The study followed an MMR Research-funded experiment on ARs impact on survey engagement. With much of the industrys experimentation in AI and AR currently focusing on qualitative research, the researchers chose to conduct the study using quantitative methods. The researchers intended to see whether the two technologies could help address some of the myriad problems facing quantitative research, such as engagement, survey fraud and data-quality issues, according to Alexandra Kuzmina, innovation consultant at MMR Research, who led the research. Can technology help us prevent that data-quality disaster? We hypothesised that it can, and that it can also uncover better quality insights if people are more engaged, Kuzmina says. MMR Research conducted two experiments with consumers one using an AR hologram and another using an AI avatar. The first experiment, run through an AR app, tested three different features using the same survey, the first being an AR hologram of a researcher explaining the assignment that played before the survey, with users directed to the survey after the hologram ended. The other two elements tested a video of a human researcher introducing the survey and thanking participants, while the third was a control group using a standard survey with a written introduction. Participants were provided with an invite to the survey and were asked to click on a link that launched the AR experience, which they could then view 38 Impact ISSUE 42 2023_pp38-39_Virtual Engagement.indd 38 16/06/2023 17:13