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Business challenge
The generative AI landscape has seen exponential growth recently and shows no signs of slowing down. A Fortune 10 company asked YouGov to provide foundational insights into generative AI (GenAI) users and to monitor the rapidly evolving competitive landscape.
YouGov partnered with the client to address their two-pronged research agenda: 1) track the demographic evolution of GenAI users and 2) identify the characteristics of GenAI output that are most desired and useful to consumers.
Solution
To understand the composition of early generative AI users, YouGov used a census clicks methodology to provide demographic benchmarks for this consumer group. These benchmarks, updated twice a year, offer a dynamic view of the consumer group as GenAI tools gain broader adoption.
YouGov worked with the client to design a survey experience that mirrored real AI chatbot output from each major competitive platform to mimic how users would see responses generated by each GenAI tool; including hyperlinks, emojis, images, and identical formatting to the platforms’ actual output. This approach allowed precise evaluation of chatbot output characteristics over time, reflecting the evolution of AI platforms.
The surveys were timed to launch within 48-hours of new releases on the client’s platform, ensuring timely insights into how this new release performed with key audiences compared to other AI tools available at the time.
Business outcomes
YouGov successfully tracked the evolution of AI users, observing no change in AI user demographics for six months before needing to update benchmarks. YouGov has run five waves since July 2023, with each survey revealing insights into AI user preferences, changing demographics of early adopters and responses from AI platforms themselves, allowing the client to stay ahead in the competitive GenAI space.