How GenAI is Changing the Game in Qualitative Data Analysis
Mar 13, 2025, Ushma Kapadiaflowres’
journey is rooted in making Qualitative
Research easier, more insightful and less tedious.
Earlier this year, we shared how to use GenAI (Generative AI) to apply frameworks in qualitative data analysis
(QDA). Here’s a summary of what we covered and
why it matters to you as a researcher.
Why GenAI in QDA?
Qualitative research is all about finding deep insights in human conversations. But, the process of organizing, analyzing and reporting findings can be time-consuming, repetitive and tedious.
That’s where GenAI comes in. Instead of you spending hours poring over lengthy transcripts, GenAI can help you structure data, apply research frameworks and generate summaries for futher analysis - all while keeping human intuition at the center.But how does it actually work?
In the webinar, we demonstrated use of GenAI to apply two popular analysis frameworks: Kapferer’s Brand Prism (CATEGORY: Whiskey) and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (CATEGORY: Real Estate).
Here’s what we did:
Kapferer’s Brand Prism for assessing a leading Whiskey brand’s identity
A top whiskey brand wanted to reconnect with its customers. Using AI, we:1. Applied the Brand Prism to arrive at individual elements of brand equity - physique, personality, relationship, culture, reflection, self image
2. Identified brand strengths & weaknesses compared to competitors
3. Pulled verbatim quotes supporting each insight
Takeaway: AI helped us discover that Competition brands lacked strong emotional connection with consumers. It also sped up the analysis and provide a structured brand comparison, on various elements of the prism.
Maslow’s Hierarchy for designing a new Real Estate offering
A real estate developer wanted insights on consumer needs for their next project. Using AI, we:1. Mapped consumer needs from a home, across Maslow’s five levels (physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization)
2. Compared male vs. female preferences when it came to choosing a home
3. Reformatted the findings into an easy-to-read summary table
Takeaway: We found that men focused on financial security, whereas women prioritized safety & community; when choosing a place to call ‘Home’. AI helped us quickly segment this data and uncover these gender-specific motivations.
Our Secret Sauce : Writing effective GenAI prompts
An often pondered question: How do you get AI to provide consumer insights?The
answer lies in writing clear, structured prompts.
We revealed some tips basis our experience of using GenAI in Qualitative data analysis:
· Assign
AI a role (e.g., “Act like a brand
strategist analyzing this data…”)
·
Provide
clear instructions (e.g.,
“Categorize responses based on Maslow’s five needs”)
Essentially, think of
prompting as probing a respondent in a focus group/ interview - it’s all
about asking the right questions!
What Makes flowres’ AI Different?
The Q&A session threw up an often-asked question: “If it’s all about writing prompts, why don’t I just use ChatGPT instead of using flowres?!”Here’s why flowres is different from generic LLMs:
Data traceability – AI-generated insights always link back to the original transcript, which makes cross-referencing and validating the data much easier than a generic LLM would.
Segment comparisons – Easily analyze responses by gender, age, or other tags, which mimics the manual method of Qualitative data analysis... except, without the tedium associated with rummaging through data sheets to match insight & segment.
Gridded analysis – View AI responses across multiple transcripts in one go, which makes it easier to arrive at a single-view of data. Unlike generic LLMs, flowres’ AI won’t hallucinate - it works only with the data you provide.
As our co-host, Jiten Madia summarized it - "...you should be able to do this with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini or for that matter, anything else. What flowres provides is an easy application layer, where some of the grunt work that you need to do elsewhere, will be saved."
Want to See GenAI in Action?
If you missed the webinar but want to see how flowres’ AI can transform your QDA process, reach out to us below, for readymade prompts to kick off with.
