I spent a month talking to real users and the insights were COMPLETELY different from AI predictions. Who else is still doing old-school customer calls?
AI is only a tool, and because it learns and makes predictions based on data, it can be vulnerable to new patterns or exceptional situations that do not exist in the data. Additionally, it is still up to humans to interpret the results provided by AI and make appropriate decisions based on them.
I'm spending ~80% of my time reaching out to potential users at the moment. As an introverted social engineer, it's wildly uncomfortable, but I know it's The Way (TM) haha. AI's great for some things, but it isn't going to sign up for my SaaS. :)
Today, AI is still not very good at creation and discovery tasks; it's better at tasks related to improving efficiency. So, for customer research, I still rely on communicating with real people to gather insights.
AI can help streamline customer research but shouldn't replace talking directly to customers. Use it to supplement interviews, surveys, etc. Tools like ChatGPT are great for coming up with initial customer profile hypotheses or pain point ideas to validate. Just don't rely on AI outputs alone - the real insights come from real conversations!
AI may be helping us with loads of tasks, but anything and everything comes with pros and cons, it is our job and our responsibility to be on the thin line and maintain this balance of the art of using AI and doing our old-school homework!