Kantar's Profiles Blog

Will voice technology have a major impact on the collection of data in marketing research?

Surveys are changing. Even with PCs and tablets available, respondents are choosing to complete surveys on their mobile devices. Open-ended questions are often reduced or eliminated as a way to shorten surveys for mobile compatibility; voice technology may enhance the survey experience on a mobile device by having the surveys read to you and enabling you to respond using your voice rather than typing on these small screen devices. Voice technology is quickly replacing both reading and typing on small screen mobile devices. 

The rapid shift in survey data collection to mobile devices has caused researchers to scramble to ensure that surveys are compatible with these collection modes and that trends are not impacted. The focus of attention has been to find ways to simplify and shorten surveys so that they work reasonably well on a mobile device. What has been lost in this transition is that mobile devices offer new ways for us to provide input that may be more suitable than reading questions and typing answers.