Artificial intelligence is quietly redefining how Indian companies understand their consumers. Once a domain dominated by surveys, focus groups, and fieldwork, market research in India is now being reshaped by synthetic data, generative models, and machine learning tools that promise faster, cheaper, and richer insights.
The Indian market research industry is valued at around $3.2 billion and is expected to cross $3.4 billion by 2025. Data analytics already accounts for more than half of the sector’s growth, driven by the increasing use of AI and big data. Yet, the fundamental question lingers: can AI truly replace traditional market research?
Bengaluru-based startups are at the forefront of this shift. LimeChat, for instance, has shown that conversational AI can automate more than 80% of customer interactions for consumer brands. Similar advances are finding their way into research workflows. Ipsos India recently introduced “digital consumers,” synthetic personas trained on real-world data to simulate product tests and advertising experiments. CEO Amit Adarkar says such tools help clients run studies faster without compromising quality. “We can accelerate product development with synthetic consumers, enabling simulations and data augmentation, without losing research rigor,” he explains.
The results are compelling. In pilot trials, synthetic-driven tests were completed nearly twice as fast and produced richer demographic insights while cutting costs by up to 60%. For companies operating in India’s hypercompetitive markets, this efficiency is transformative.
Consumer goods major ITC Foods has also begun integrating AI into its insight-gathering processes. Vara Prasad, Vice President of ITC Foods, says AI now helps mine call-center transcripts and social media chatter to identify emerging trends. “Traditionally, these processes have been time-intensive and repetitive,” he says. “With AI, they’re becoming faster and more integrated. The potential really lies in feeding it with context. That’s when AI becomes an engine for innovation and personalized solutions.”
AI-generated synthetic data is also addressing one of the industry’s biggest challenges: the cost and time required to reach diverse respondents across India. Instead of surveying actual consumers, researchers can now generate responses from AI personas that represent target groups such as urban working mothers, rural Gen Z users, or first-time smartphone buyers. These synthetic respondents can be queried, tested, and even segmented based on behavioral cues derived from millions of existing data points.
However, this shift comes with its own risks. The biggest concern remains bias. AI models can unintentionally reproduce stereotypes or overrepresent certain demographics based on the datasets they’re trained on. Research teams are responding by validating AI-generated data against human samples and running statistical similarity tests to ensure reliability. As Ipsos innovation lead Anthony Dsouza notes, “The closer the synthetic data aligns with real data, the lower the risk.”
Privacy is another driver behind the rise of synthetic data. By removing direct human participation, companies can now test messaging and product ideas without collecting any personal information. This reduces exposure to data breaches and simplifies compliance with India’s emerging data protection laws.
While synthetic data makes it easier to scale insights, it isn’t meant to eliminate human input. In fact, AI has given rise to a new role: the “research prompt engineer.” These professionals design the right questions and contexts for AI tools to simulate human reasoning. Krishnendu Dutta of Ipsos India believes this evolution will make human interpretation even more valuable. “AI will automate repetitive tasks, but humans remain essential for context, activation, and interpretation,” he says. “Prompting will soon be as important a skill as questionnaire design.”
A major reason AI is gaining traction is speed. Traditional market research often takes eight to ten weeks, from survey design to report delivery. AI can generate insights in hours or days, giving companies faster decision cycles. Consumer brands are already using AI to test ad copy, pricing, and packaging designs before product launches. For example, FMCG firms are experimenting with AI-powered video interviews that use emotion recognition and sentiment analysis to capture subtle reactions in seconds.
But experts caution that AI still struggles with cultural nuance, something particularly critical in a market as diverse as India. Algorithms might detect that consumer sentiment around a brand is falling, but they can’t yet explain whether that’s due to economic shifts, competitor campaigns, or changing cultural values. Human researchers remain vital for decoding these signals and connecting them to business strategy.
This evolving balance between human and machine-led research has prompted a rethinking of industry roles. Researchers are increasingly focusing on storytelling, insight framing, and strategic interpretation, while machines handle pattern detection and data processing. As one senior executive at a top Mumbai-based insights agency puts it, “The future of research belongs to teams that can marry AI’s analytical muscle with human empathy and cultural intelligence.”
The adoption of AI is also reshaping India’s research job market. Firms are hiring data scientists, natural language processing experts, and AI analysts alongside traditional researchers. Market Research Society of India (MRSI) president Nitin Kamat recently described this as “the industry’s most significant talent transformation in decades.” He noted that demand is rising for professionals who understand both consumer psychology and machine learning, a combination increasingly seen as the future of marketing intelligence.
Interestingly, not all research is going digital. Many organizations are adopting a hybrid approach, using synthetic data to test initial hypotheses and then validating the results through focus groups or ethnographic research. This method allows brands to move faster while retaining the depth of human understanding. “AI gives you the what, but humans still uncover the why,” says a Delhi-based CMO at a leading e-commerce firm.
Bias and fraud prevention are also prompting changes in data governance. Research platforms now run algorithms to detect AI-generated or duplicate responses in human surveys, ensuring authenticity. At the same time, synthetic research is gaining credibility as a complement to traditional panels rather than a replacement.
As AI tools mature, the line between automation and augmentation will continue to blur. For instance, advanced models can already forecast market shifts or simulate consumer reactions to future economic scenarios. Some companies are experimenting with “virtual focus groups” powered by generative AI that mimic diverse consumer opinions based on real-world data.
Yet, despite the sophistication, researchers agree that AI cannot fully replicate the spontaneity, emotion, and cultural texture of human interactions. In many cases, it serves as a powerful co-pilot, handling the grunt work while humans focus on interpretation and strategy.
In the end, the question isn’t whether AI will replace market research, but how it will redefine it. Indian firms are realizing that the smartest path forward lies in blending speed with substance, using AI for scale and humans for sense-making.
As Ipsos’s Dutta puts it, “The future belongs to those who combine AI’s power with human insight.”