Sparring with AI, but the human side remains the most important

Marit Klooster started as an intern at Ruigrok and specialized in qualitative research. Marja Ruigrok, the founder and then director, proposed employee participation in 2008. Marit became a co-shareholder and now – together with 3 other participants – forms the current management of Ruigrok Research & Advice.

Ruigrok is a full-service market research agency, whose strengths are the integration between qualitative and quantitative research, UX research and customer journey research (also called customer journey research). While UX research often focuses on the technical aspect, Ruigrok often also adds a needs assessment. This allows you to get to know the user’s context better and you usually provide better advice at a strategic level.

At Ruigrok Research & Advice leaves a lot of room for the person behind the employee. Relationships is the code word that comes back again and again: long-term relationships and really wanting to go for each other. That is why the current management is considering introducing employee participation again in the long term.

Has market research changed in the last 5-10 years? Many things have remained the same: the core of the profession is to understand your customer’s challenge, identify what information is needed and gain insight from it. So the core has remained the same, only the means have changed. And you now solve certain issues differently.

What about artificial intelligence in market research? According to Marit, AI is here to stay and certain types of research will no longer occur in the future. But the dialogue with the target group will always remain important. Ruigrok uses AI for text analysis and is experimenting with ChatGPT. For example, to delve into the world of your client. But you should think carefully about what you ask ChatGPT.

A final important development according to Marit is that advice will play an increasingly important role. More and more attention and time is being devoted to how research results are further developed within organizations.

Then Marit’s reading and listening tips:
– All information from the trade organization Data and insights network
– https://www.quirks.com/: for Marit a nice source for international qualitative research with developments and new techniques (but overall a lot information about all facets of market research)
– SWOCC: combination of science and practice, is closely monitored at Ruigrok – Just be curious about what is happening around you, and at the same time be aware that you live in your own bubble – Kakhiel
: a nice collection of often absurd examples that often make you think: how could someone have come up with something like that. https://www.kakhiel.nl/