Researchers predict synthetic responses will dominate in coming years

The 2025 Market Research Trends Report publishes the results of a Qualtrics survey of 3,198 market researchers across 14 countries.

It found that 71% of participants agree that the ‘majority of market research’ will be done using synthetic responses within three years, and 69% claim to have used synthetic responses in their research in the last year.

Most researchers surveyed ( 89%) report that they are using AI tools regularly or in experimental phases, while a further 83% said that their organisations plan to ‘significantly’ increase AI investment in 2025.  

The top challenges for researchers around AI integration, according to the report, were ensuring the quality of third-party panels and effectively identifying and preventing AI-generated responses. However, 71% of researchers agreed with the statement that AI will explain research findings as well as humans within three years.

Researchers who self-identified their research teams as being ‘on the cutting edge of innovation’ were more likely to say that their influence, budgets and demand for their work had increased, according to the survey, compared with teams defined as ‘traditional’ ( 77% vs 51%).

Additionally, seven in 10 participants ( 71%) from ‘cutting-edge research teams’ also claimed that their organisation relies significantly more on their research today than it did in the past year, compared with 35% of ‘traditional’ teams.

Research teams defined as ‘cutting-edge’ were also conducting more research than their traditional counterparts, across all types of research asked about in the survey – for example, 52% of ‘cutting-edge’ teams were conducting user experience (UX) research, compared to 41% of ‘traditional’ teams.

“As budgets come under scrutiny, proving the value of research is essential, and keeping a pulse on the rapidly changing perceptions of consumers is the key to providing strategic recommendations,” said Ali Henriques, global head of research services at Qualtrics. “Traditional research methods can’t keep up with today’s consumers, and the research teams on the cutting edge are seeing demand for their services increase in 2025.” 

Qualtrics conducted an online survey of 3,198 market researchers in 15 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the US). Researchers worked across around 12 industries.

Earlier this year, the MRS Delphi Group published a report on using synthetic participants for market research, to explore the case for synthetic respondents from legal, ethical, methodological and financial standpoints, while a Research Live feature explored the potential applications of synthetic data.