15 AI market research tools for smarter consumer insights and data analysis

Unless you’ve been stranded on a desert island for the last few years you’re probably aware that AI market research tools are transforming the way businesses uncover and interpret consumer behavior.

The ability to streamline complex processes, analyze vast datasets, and deliver actionable insights in real time mean these tools are the smart way to hunt for opportunities, track brand performance, and predict future trends.

But in such a fast moving area with so many options, where do you start? In this blog, we explain what AI market research is all about, outline its key advantages, and showcase 15 top tools you can start using today.

1. What is AI market research?
2. What can I use AI market research tools for?
3. How exactly can AI market research tools help me?
4. How GWI is leveraging AI in market research and consumer insights
5. 15 top AI market research tools to consider
   • GWI Spark
   • Quantilope
   • Brandwatch
   • Morning Consult
   • Browse AI
   • Zappi
   • Hotjar
   • Appen
   • YouScan
   • Crayon
   • Perplexity AI
   • SurveyMonkey Genius
   • Speak AI
   • Market Insights AI
   • ChatGPT
6. How to choose the right AI market research tool
7. Key takeaways 
8. AI market research tools FAQ

What is AI market research?

AI-powered market research uses advanced technologies like machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics to help companies find the right consumer insights.

By automating time-consuming or challenging tasks, AI makes market research smarter, faster, and more scalable. From understanding audience behaviors to analyzing brand sentiment, the result helps businesses to make rock-solid, data-driven decisions.

What can I use AI market research tools for?

The short answer is, pretty much anything; from collecting your own data, to tapping into 3rd party insights, there’s a tool for every task. That said, there are a handful of key areas where AI-powered market research tools really shine:

• Survey automation: Streamline your research with tools that design, distribute, and analyze surveys in real time, saving time and manual effort.
• Trend analysis: Analyze historical and live data to predict consumer behavior and market movements with unrivaled accuracy.
• Sentiment analysis: Understand public opinion by evaluating consumer sentiment across social media, forums, and other digital spaces.
• Competitive intelligence: Track competitors’ strategies, pricing, and performance to uncover opportunities and stay ahead.
• Data visualization: Transform raw data into dynamic charts and dashboards, making insights easier to understand and share.

Whether you’re a marketer looking for audience insights or a strategist mapping the competitive landscape, the range and versatility of AI market research tools means there’s likely to be an option to address your specific research challenge.

How exactly can AI market research tools help me?

So far we’ve looked at what AI market research is all about and where it’s useful; now let’s look at the benefits. Broadly speaking, AI market research tools are great for:

• Speed: Automated processes help streamline the collection and analysis of data, delivering insights faster than traditional methods.
• Scalability: These tools are designed to handle huge datasets, making them a valuable asset for businesses operating across multiple markets.
• Predictive insights: AI can help identify emerging trends and anticipate consumer behaviors, giving you the foresight you need to stay competitive.
• Team Efficiency: By automating repetitive tasks, AI frees up research teams to focus on high-priority projects that require strategic thinking and human expertise.

It’s worth pointing out that while these advantages make AI tools an incredibly powerful addition to research workflows, their ultimate value depends on how well they’re integrated into existing processes and paired with human expertise. That’s when the magic really starts to happen.

How GWI is leveraging AI in market research and consumer insights

Admittedly we’re a little biased here, but bear with us. GWI Spark, our AI research assistant, is transforming how users uncover insights, connecting them to real survey data from nearly a million consumers so they get the reliable insights they need to ignite their creativity and guide their next move.

At the heart of this is a friendly, familiar chat function; you ask a question, and GWI Spark instantly gives you tailored insights – simple as that.

By enabling users to ask questions in everyday language and get bespoke insights on demand, GWI Spark massively simplifies the whole process of uncovering audience behaviors, identifying trends, and crafting strategies, making it ideal for non-experts.

Add to that interactive visualizations and an intuitive interface, and users can explore even the most complex topics with confidence. The result is accurate, reliable insights that support faster, smarter, decisions based on evidence not guesswork.

15 top AI market research tools to consider

1. GWI Spark

We’ve already introduced GWI Spark and explained how it delivers instant insights and endless opportunities, exactly when you need them.

Another important reason to choose GWI Spark is the data it runs on. Unlike tools that rely on external or inconsistent data sources, GWI Spark is fueled exclusively by GWI’s ultra-robust global survey data, the result of monthly surveys of almost a million real life, flesh-and-blood, individuals in over 50 world markets. Every insight is built on a solid foundation of accuracy and reliability, giving you the confidence to make informed, data-driven decisions.

Key features

GWI Spark’s intuitive, chat-based interface allows you to interact seamlessly with the data. Start a conversation, explore insights in real time, and take your analysis further by generating customizable charts, pinning key findings, or diving deeper into areas of interest. 

By transforming data into actionable insights, GWI empowers businesses to strategize effectively and move forward with confidence.

Use cases

GWI Spark is perfect for professionals who don’t consider themselves data experts – for example sales teams or marketing strategists – helping them unlock actionable insights tailored to their goals so they can make smarter decisions. Areas where GWI Spark really scores include:

• Pitching and winning new business: Sales teams can tap into instant insights about audience preferences and buying triggers, helping them craft data-backed pitches even under tight deadlines.
• Content marketing: Copywriters and strategists can explore quick insights into their audience’s concerns and values – like mindfulness or sustainability – to create campaigns that really resonate, and back up their blog articles with up-to-date stats about real people. 
• Partnership opportunities: Brands can identify potential strategic partners by analyzing consumer trends and preferences, enabling collaborations that drive growth and unlock new opportunities.
• Product positioning and strategy: Product marketers can uncover market gaps, validate go-to-market strategies, and align product features with user needs to stay ahead of the competition.

Why choose GWI Spark?

Simple: GWI Spark offers unmatched clarity, certainty, and functionality for on-demand market research. It’s ideal for anyone looking to:

• Validate decisions with data-driven insights
• Explore audiences interactively and visually
• Save time while maintaining complete accuracy 

Whether you’re pitching ideas, crafting campaigns, or developing products, GWI Spark ensures your strategies are rooted in insights that matter.

2. Quantilope

Quantilope integrates AI into its research platform to help teams streamline survey creation, simplify data analysis, and uncover predictive insights. By acting as a co-pilot for researchers, these tools make it easier to design studies, interpret findings, and deliver actionable results.

Features

Quantilope’s platform streamlines the research process by automating survey design and reporting, providing real-time insights through advanced analytics, and offering predictive modeling tools to help forecast trends with precision.

Use cases

Quantilope is commonly used for product testing, brand health monitoring, and campaign evaluation. Its speed and flexibility make it a good choice for iterative research.

3. Brandwatch

Brandwatch’s Iris AI specializes in social media listening and consumer sentiment analysis. It helps businesses track their online reputation and monitor brand perception.

Features

Brandwatch leverages advanced AI to provide real-time sentiment analysis from millions of online posts, helping businesses stay attuned to public opinion. Its powerful tools identify emerging trends and topics, while seamless integration with visualization platforms ensures insights are presented in clear, impactful reports.

Use cases

Brandwatch is ideal for monitoring brand reputation, competitive analysis, and planning social media strategies.

4. Morning Consult

Morning Consult AI brings a predictive edge to market research by analyzing public opinion and sentiment. Its AI features allow businesses to understand consumer preferences at scale.

Features

Morning Consult’s AI processes vast amounts of survey data, providing detailed demographic breakdowns and trend forecasts. Its user-friendly dashboards make insights accessible to non-technical users.

Use cases

This tool is commonly used for political polling, consumer confidence analysis, and brand tracking.

5. Browse AI

Browse AI specializes in web scraping to collect market data from various online sources. Its intuitive setup makes it accessible even for teams without technical expertise.

Features

The tool automates data extraction, capturing product prices, customer reviews, and competitor information. It also integrates with analytics platforms for seamless reporting.

Use cases

Businesses use Browse AI for competitive benchmarking, ecommerce optimization, and tracking industry trends.

6. Zappi

Zappi leverages AI to create quick, actionable reports tailored to specific research needs. Its platform supports everything from concept testing to ad performance evaluation.

Features

Zappi’s AI Quick Reports summarize key findings in seconds, saving researchers hours of manual work. The platform also includes tools for audience targeting and creative testing.

Use cases

Brands use Zappi to evaluate campaign effectiveness, test new product concepts, and explore customer preferences.

7. Hotjar

Hotjar combines behavioral analytics with AI to offer insights into user experiences. Its AI-driven surveys and heatmaps provide valuable feedback for optimizing digital platforms.

Features

The tool includes AI surveys, session recordings, and heatmaps to visualize user interactions. It also highlights friction points, enabling teams to improve site performance.

Use cases

Hotjar is particularly useful for UX designers, product managers, and digital marketers looking to enhance user experiences.

8. Appen

Appen specializes in data for machine learning and AI models, making it an essential tool for businesses that rely on high-quality datasets. Its capabilities extend to training AI models and delivering tailored datasets for market research.

Features

Appen provides high-quality, annotated datasets tailored for machine learning applications. It has a global reach, collecting data from diverse markets to ensure wide applicability. Additionally, it offers tools for speech recognition, computer vision, and natural language processing model training.

Use cases 

Businesses use Appen to enhance machine learning models with accurate and comprehensive datasets. Annotated data from Appen improves the performance of AI algorithms in market research. Companies also leverage its services to gather demographic-specific data for targeted insights.

9. YouScan

YouScan is a social media listening tool that leverages AI to analyze consumer-generated content and identify key trends. It helps brands understand online conversations, making it invaluable for sentiment analysis and market trend discovery.

Features

YouScan uses AI-driven image recognition to analyze visual content, offering a unique edge in understanding consumer-generated media. It provides real-time tracking of social media trends and brand mentions, ensuring businesses stay updated. The tool also offers sentiment analysis across multiple platforms to gauge consumer opinions effectively.

Use cases

Brands use YouScan to monitor their reputation and sentiment on social media platforms. It helps identify emerging consumer trends from user-generated content, enabling businesses to stay ahead of the curve. Additionally, YouScan supports competitive benchmarking by tracking and analyzing online conversations about competitors.

10. Crayon

Crayon uses AI to gather and analyze competitive intelligence, providing businesses with a clear picture of their industry landscape. It helps organizations track competitors’ strategies and adapt accordingly.

Features

Crayon provides real-time tracking of competitor activities, including updates to pricing, campaigns, and messaging. Its AI-powered insights offer a detailed view of market dynamics and industry positioning. The platform also includes tools for competitive benchmarking and identifying new business opportunities.

Use cases

Businesses use Crayon to monitor competitor website updates and marketing strategies, keeping them informed of industry changes. The tool helps analyze pricing trends to support strategic decisions. Companies also rely on Crayon to track shifts in customer behavior and market dynamics for better positioning.

11. Perplexity AI

Perplexity AI is an advanced AI-powered assistant that simplifies research processes by delivering concise, factual summaries from large datasets. It’s a versatile tool for quick research needs.

Features

Perplexity AI uses natural language processing to enable intuitive interactions, making it easy to explore and query datasets. It provides fact-based answers and concise summaries for complex research queries. Perplexity AI also integrates seamlessly with users’ existing workflows to boost efficiency and collaboration.

Use cases

Perplexity AI helps researchers quickly summarize large datasets, streamlining time-sensitive projects. It’s an excellent tool for exploring consumer behavior trends through direct and interactive querying. Businesses use it to simplify data analysis and accelerate decision-making.

12. SurveyMonkey Genius

SurveyMonkey Genius uses AI to help businesses design smarter surveys and analyze responses more effectively. It automates feedback analysis and highlights key insights for decision-making.

Features

SurveyMonkey Genius provides AI-powered recommendations for crafting survey questions that are more likely to engage respondents. It automates the analysis of survey results, delivering actionable insights with minimal manual effort. The platform also integrates with CRM and marketing tools, enabling seamless data utilization.

Use cases

Businesses use SurveyMonkey Genius to create engaging surveys that improve response rates and data quality. It analyzes feedback to identify pain points and uncover opportunities for growth. The platform also streamlines survey data integration into larger research workflows, enhancing productivity.

13. Speak AI

Speak AI combines AI with speech and text analysis to provide detailed consumer insights. It’s a powerful tool for analyzing interviews, focus groups, and other qualitative data.

Features

Speak AI automates the transcription and analysis of audio and video data, saving time and ensuring accuracy. Its AI-powered sentiment analysis tools provide qualitative insights by identifying themes and emotional tones. The platform also includes custom reporting features, making it easy to present findings to stakeholders.

Use cases

Businesses use Speak AI to analyze customer interviews, uncovering sentiment and recurring themes. It’s an effective tool for transcribing and evaluating focus group discussions, providing actionable insights. Speak AI also supports the creation of detailed qualitative reports for strategic decision-making.

14. Market Insights AI

Market Insights AI is designed to automate the collection and analysis of market data, delivering tailored insights that businesses can act on. It focuses on identifying trends and evaluating market opportunities.

Features

Market Insights AI automates data scraping and analysis for comprehensive market research. Its predictive analytics tools identify trends and opportunities, enabling proactive decision-making. The platform also delivers tailored insights based on industry-specific needs and business objectives.

Use cases

Companies use Market Insights AI to conduct competitive analysis in specific markets, gaining a deeper understanding of their landscape. It helps track industry trends, informing long-term strategies. The tool also supports businesses to identify new opportunities for product development and innovation.

15. ChatGPT

Last but very much not least, ChatGPT is an AI-powered conversational assistant that streamlines market research tasks through natural language interaction. It supports everything from data analysis to report generation.

Features

ChatGPT uses conversational AI for intuitive interaction and querying, making it accessible to users with varying technical expertise. Its contextual understanding allows it to handle complex questions and analyze datasets effectively. The tool integrates with research workflows and other platforms, enabling seamless usage.

Use cases

ChatGPT is frequently used to draft reports and summaries for market research projects, saving time for teams. It automates repetitive research tasks through conversational commands, boosting efficiency. Businesses also use ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas and explore insights for strategic planning.

How to choose the right AI market research tool

Picking the right AI market research tool depends on your business needs and objectives. Here are some factors to consider:

1. Business goals: Define your primary objectives. Are you focusing on audience segmentation, trend analysis, or competitive benchmarking? The tool you choose should align with your specific goals.
2. Data accuracy: Look for tools that prioritize data certainty and reliability. For example, GWI Spark’s insights are based on our monthly surveys  that collects, analyzes, and aggregates the thoughts, feelings, needs, wants, and behaviors of almost 1M individuals to accurately represent the views, behaviors and interests of 3B consumers in over 50 world markets (and counting). 
3. Ease of use: A user-friendly interface is essential for teams with varying technical expertise. Tools with natural language search or intuitive dashboards can simplify the process.
4. Integration capabilities: Ensure the tool can integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, such as CRMs or analytics platforms.
5. Scalability: Choose a tool that can grow with your business. If your market expands or your research needs evolve, the tool should adapt too.
6. Cost and ROI: Evaluate the pricing model and potential return on investment. Balance upfront costs with the long-term benefits the tool provides.

By carefully assessing these factors, businesses can find a tool that not only meets their current needs, but also supports their long-term strategies.

Key takeaways 

AI market research tools are essential for businesses looking to stay competitive in today’s data-driven world. These tools offer speed, accuracy, and insights that can transform how organizations approach decision-making. 

When selecting a tool, prioritize data accuracy, usability, scalability, and integration capabilities. The best tools – like GWI Spark – stand out for the depth, breadth, and trustworthiness of their data and their ability to generate actionable insights.

Choosing the right AI market research tool basically means you can make evidence-based choices, adapt to changing market trends, and deliver meaningful results for your organization.

AI market research tools FAQ

What is the best AI tool for research?

The best tool depends on your goals. For comprehensive consumer insights, GWI Spark is unmatched. For social listening, Brandwatch is highly effective.

Which AI tool is best for marketing?

Tools like Zappi and Hotjar excel at creative testing and campaign optimization. GWI Spark gives non-experts in marketing teams instant access to trustworthy data from real people to validate hunches or inspire new ideas.

How do AI tools ensure data accuracy?

AI tools use advanced algorithms to clean and process data, minimizing the risk of human error while enhancing efficiency. One of the key features that sets GWI apart is the fact that we interview our just under a million real people in 50+ markets, using the same globally harmonized set of questions. The results are then checked and rechecked to ensure accuracy.

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