Automation in research, yea or nay?

Do you see automation as something threatening? Personally, I don't see that automation leads to higher unemployment rates. It rather encourages growth, both personal and organizational. It makes us acquire new skills. 

Think about it. Thanks to MailChimp or GetResponse you no longer have to spend hours on sending out newsletters or invitations to hundreds or thousands of partners and consumers. More so, this software gives you stats. Yes, all those tables, graphs and charts we are so passionate about and that help us process and analyze data faster. Now marketing managers have to learn how to analyze data better, rather than perfect a skill of clicking Send button on the email.

Have you heard about Ana from @ESOMAR? It is the first artificial intelligence search engine for market research with AI learning capabilities. Now, market researchers can combine content across all ESOMAR libraries. This project is an important step towards a automation in our industry.

Social media, search and web analytics, and CRM are all now become more automated, leaving us time to think, time to create better strategies and to optimize our work. Every year we delegate more difficult tasks to machines.

This doesn't mean we will be replaced by technology completely, it means that we will have to do fewer boring things every year. 

My point is, the automation doesn’t deprive people of their work. It gives us more time for ourselves, more time for creative work, it gives us new interesting challenges and new professions. The automation encourages us to learn more, and it is the way to create better products, to leave our customers and employees more satisfied, and to grow the overall economics. 

So, I say "Yea!" to automation in research.