Artificial intelligence has long promised to reshape daily life, from the ways we shop to the decisions businesses make. Yet it is only with the arrival of large language models—most notably ChatGPT—that this promise has begun to feel genuinely tangible. In the span of just a few months, the UK has witnessed a profound shift in the way organisations approach market research and user research. Conversations once confined to boardrooms, research labs, or consulting firms are now happening in cafés, on commuter trains, and across thousands of small businesses that previously lacked the capacity or budget to conduct meaningful research.
But the emergence of AI-driven research tools is not simply a story of technological convenience. It raises deeper questions about rigour, ethics, representativeness, and the evolving relationship between UK consumers and the businesses that serve them. As a member of the UK Academic Council who sits at the intersection of technological innovation, public policy, and consumer welfare, I have witnessed both the excitement and the caution that accompany this shift.
This article—aimed at a broad UK readership—explores how ChatGPT is used in market and user research, what benefits it brings, what limitations must not be ignored, and how we can responsibly integrate it into the future of British commerce. Whether you are a small business owner in Manchester, a startup founder in London’s Silicon Roundabout, a public-sector leader in Edinburgh, or simply a curious consumer wondering how companies analyse your needs, this piece aims to bring clarity to a rapidly evolving field.
Before we discuss how ChatGPT fits into the picture, it helps to understand why research itself has become so essential.
The modern British consumer is more complex than ever. Our preferences shift with economic uncertainty, global trends, sustainability concerns, and the digital platforms we spend time on. Traditional market research methods—focus groups, surveys, interviews, consumer panels—have historically played a powerful role in helping businesses decode this complexity.
But they have also suffered from familiar problems:
High cost, especially for SMEs
Slow turnaround times
Limited sample sizes
Geographical constraints
Response fatigue among participants
Inherent biases in who responds and why
These limitations have real consequences. For example:
A small restaurant in Birmingham may struggle to validate demand for a new menu concept.
A charity in Cardiff might not afford rigorous user interviews to test messaging for a fundraising campaign.
A tech startup in Leeds could delay product improvements because user researchers are overloaded with requests.
Enter ChatGPT: a tool capable of synthesising large bodies of information, generating hypotheses, simulating consumer personas, and helping researchers frame better questions.
It’s important to recognise that ChatGPT does not replace real consumers. Instead, it supports and accelerates the research process in several ways.
Businesses use ChatGPT to brainstorm research questions, explore market trends, summarise competitor strategies, and generate hypotheses. This early work—which often consumes up to 40% of research time—is dramatically faster with AI.
ChatGPT can generate draft user personas based on typical demographic and behavioural data. While these personas must be validated, they provide a starting point for teams that previously lacked capacity.
ChatGPT excels at summarising interview transcripts, identifying themes, extracting sentiment, or highlighting unexpected insights—tasks that routinely take researchers days or weeks.
Copywriters, designers, and product teams use ChatGPT to quickly test how different messages might be perceived by different audience types. It provides feedback that helps refine tone and clarity before real-world testing.
While AI cannot replicate the full diversity of human emotion or socioeconomic background, it can simulate reasoned responses to hypothetical situations. This helps businesses prepare for real-world variations.
Small and micro-businesses—who make up 99% of UK enterprises—are using ChatGPT to conduct early-stage research that previously required external consultants or agencies.
A major benefit is accessibility. A sole trader in Bristol or an independent retailer in Glasgow can now explore customer trends without spending thousands on formal research.
Insights that once took a month may now take an afternoon. This agility helps UK businesses adapt faster in a volatile economic climate.
Ironically, one of ChatGPT’s greatest strengths is not answering questions but helping refine them. It pushes teams to be clearer about what they want to understand.
From testing product names to generating hypotheses, AI broadens the creative landscape for British brands.
Market research has long felt intimidating to people without training. AI lowers this barrier and encourages data-driven thinking across the UK.
Despite its utility, ChatGPT has significant limitations.
AI can simulate reasoning patterns, but it cannot replicate the lived experiences of:
a 19-year-old student in Liverpool
a single parent in Croydon
a retiree in rural Dorset
a first-generation immigrant family in Leicester
Real voices remain irreplaceable.
AI models reflect the data they were trained on. Without careful oversight, this can reinforce harmful stereotypes or misrepresent minorities.
ChatGPT writes confidently, which can mislead untrained users into believing suggestions are definitive rather than hypothetical.
AI-generated personas can inadvertently mimic real individuals. Data privacy, transparency, and accountability remain crucial.
There is concern among academics and practitioners that an over-reliance on AI tools will erode foundational research skills such as critical thinking, interviewing, and analysis.
The UK offers a unique environment for AI-enabled research because of its diverse economy, strong SME representation, and varied regional identities.
A café owner used ChatGPT to test ideas for a new brunch menu and to understand tourist vs. local preferences. The result wasn’t the menu itself—it was the decision not to expand prematurely.
Several community organisations have begun using AI to draft preliminary user personas before holding interviews. This saves staff time and improves interview design.
Early-stage founders use ChatGPT to identify gaps in customer journeys and to simulate reactions to marketing copy. This leads to more targeted A/B testing.
Government teams exploring digital inclusion have used AI to summarise public feedback and identify recurring themes.
To ensure responsible use, organisations should adopt the following:
Use AI for hypothesis generation, not conclusion drawing.
Always validate insights with real users.
Avoid relying on AI to represent minority or vulnerable groups.
Be transparent when AI has been used in research processes.
Have human researchers review all outputs.
Never input personal or confidential data into AI systems.
These guidelines mirror best practices across UK academia and professional research bodies.
Below is a simple hybrid model that UK teams can adopt:
Generate research questions
Brainstorm hypotheses
Produce draft personas
Identify competitor patterns
Conduct interviews and surveys
Engage with real participants
Gather qualitative and quantitative data
AI summarises key patterns
Humans evaluate context, bias, and nuance
Cross-validate results with real users
Iterate product or service design
Use AI to explore messaging or product scenarios
Final decisions made by trained professionals
This balance ensures speed without sacrificing integrity.
AI-assisted research will increasingly influence products, public services, and communication strategies. Consumers should be aware that:
AI may inform how businesses understand your preferences
Companies must still consult real users
Ethical frameworks must evolve with technology
Government regulation is expected to expand in coming years
A healthy, informed public dialogue is essential.
Looking ahead, the UK stands at a crossroads. We can embrace AI tools as accelerators of innovation while preserving the human perspective that makes research meaningful. We can demand transparency from companies that use these tools. And we can ensure that AI benefits all corners of society, from rural enterprises to urban tech clusters.
Several trends are already emerging:
Hybrid AI-human research teams becoming the norm
Lower costs enabling SMEs to compete with large firms
AI literacy becoming a core business skill
Increased regulation and ethical standards
Expansion of UK academic research into AI-supported methodologies
If managed responsibly, AI will not diminish the value of human insight—it will elevate it.
The arrival of AI marks one of the most significant shifts in research practice since the rise of online surveys. And yet the lesson is surprisingly familiar: good research requires curiosity, humility, and a willingness to listen. ChatGPT can help us ask better questions. It can accelerate learning. It can broaden access.
But it cannot fully understand the complexity of the British public—their histories, cultures, humour, frustrations, hopes, and contradictions. That remains the irreplaceable domain of human experience.
Used wisely, ChatGPT offers the UK an opportunity to build a new era of inclusive, accessible, and insightful market and user research. The challenge now is not whether we use AI, but how.
