AI has created a new scarce skill: Judgement
AI can analyse data at speed, but judgement remains the real differentiator. In a world where everyone has access to the same technology, the ability to challenge, interpret and uncover what truly matters is becoming the most valuable insight skill of all
It can't fully understand that a sarcastic remark was masking a genuine frustration, or that the one person who voiced a concern nobody else mentioned has just unlocked the whole challenge. That's where experience comes in.
Not because experienced researchers are smarter than AI, but because they've sat through the interviews, listened to the recordings, wrestled with the transcripts and spent years learning what matters.
Ironically, AI may create a new challenge for our industry. Many of us developed our judgement during the messy, time-consuming parts of research. We learned by immersing ourselves in the detail. By spotting patterns ourselves. By getting things wrong occasionally and learning why.
If AI removes all of that, where does the next generation develop the judgement needed to challenge the output? Because accepting AI's answer is easy. Knowing when it's missed something is the scarce skill.
That's why we're so passionate about capability building at Between. Not just helping teams use AI better, but helping them develop the judgement, curiosity and confidence that turns information into insight.
AI can analyse the data. The real question is: who's developing the judgement to challenge it?
Because in a world where everyone has access to the same technology, that's the skill that will separate good insight from great insight.
Everyone is talking about what AI can do for insight, and let's face it, it's bloody impressive.
It can analyse hundreds of pages of transcripts in minutes. It can summarise interviews, identify themes and help us move through mountains of data at a speed that would have seemed impossible only a few years ago.
At Between, we use it every day. But I don't think the most valuable skill in insight has changed. It's discernment, the ability to know the difference between what's interesting and what's important. Between what's common and what's meaningful. Between what people said and what they actually meant.