The news: Artificial intelligence now shapes how insights are gathered and applied. Over the past year, nearly all US market researchers (98%) have used generative AI, and 72% use it at least once a day, per a new Harris Poll–QuestDIY survey. AI’s speed and scale have replaced early skepticism, even as trust continues to lag behind. 

“Researchers view AI as a junior analyst, capable of speed and breadth but needing oversight and judgment,” said Gary Topiol, managing director at QuestDIY.

The upside: As analysts grow fluent in AI tools, productivity gains are tangible.

• 89% say AI improved their work life, and one in four call the improvement “significant.”
• 80% have increased AI usage in the past six months, and 71% plan to expand AI usage further in the next six months.
• Top AI use cases per Harris Poll-QuestDIY include analysis of multiple data sources (58%), structured data (54%), and open-ended survey answers (49%), as well as automating reports (50%).
• 56% of researchers say they save at least five hours weekly using genAI tools.

AI adoption will yield continuous benefits as tools become smarter and tailored to specific research use cases. The end result might be speed and scale, but challenges remain.

The conflict: Reliability is AI’s weak point. More than a quarter (28%) of researchers say AI “caused inconsistencies in style, tone, or formatting in deliverables,” 37% cite data-quality issues, and 31% say validation time has increased. 

Privacy and security (33%), lack of training (32%), and transparency (31%) remain major barriers that need to be addressed by investing in security solutions and employee training to boost confidence in AI use and ensure safe data practices. 

Why it matters for brands: Automation saves time but adds new layers of checking, compliance, and governance. However, given that today’s AI is the worst it will ever be, new models and fine-tuning could soon narrow the reliability gap. 

Brands adopting AI should build oversight and human judgment into their marketing pipelines to guarantee that every automated insight passes the test of accuracy, transparency, and brand integrity.

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