From Conversations to Conversion
inca x Microsoft Xbox leverage Conversational AI to enhance engagement, tap emotion, extend brand love, and tie qualitative insights with quantitative confidence to business outcomes.
Client
Microsoft
2024
This unique in-depth case study, enriched by compelling research on research, redefines and sets new best practices for market research in the era of generative AI, paving the way for a future where human + AI symbiosis shapes the forefront of consumer insights.
Microsoft has been driving brand love by creating products and experiences that foster usage, loyalty, adoption, and advocacy. Microsoft’s research has shown that creating positive moments is the pathway to creating love.
The challenge Microsoft has is that, until now, obtaining a deep understanding of these emotional experiences has required qualitative approaches. However, qualitative understanding has, by its very nature, been based on limited samples of participants. And insights obtained from a small number of people, even when they are deep and rich, are a risk for businesses building strategies that require significant investment and that impact business performance.
Microsoft and its research partner, Nexxt Intelligence, believe that the advent of generative AI changes this dynamic. Large language models that underpin Conversational AI, when trained for a market research context, facilitate rich conversational interactions with participants that elicit deep understanding at scale and speed. Microsoft teamed with Nexxt Intelligence| inca to leverage Conversational AI to enable and encourage participants to share their stories and emotions on a large scale, which would allow for these narratives to be quantified and analyzed against behavioral metrics and business KPIs, ultimately driving brand strategy.
The team had two objectives in mind as they conceptualized the project:
Insight Needs: To bridge the emotional narratives and business KPIs, and provide actional insights to help Xbox continue to drive brand love
Research on Research: To understand and quantify the effectiveness and impact of using Conversational AI for market research
With those objectives in mind, the team set up an A/B test: two parallel studies, one using the Nexxt Intelligence| inca Conversational AI survey platform, and the other using a traditional quantitative survey platform, among Xbox customers who had engaged with Xbox in the past 12 months. The surveys were conducted in the US in the spring of 2024.
inca Conversational AI Survey: n=1,600; LOI=5 minutes
Traditional Quantitative Survey: n= 4,200; LOI=10 minutes (this survey had other objectives beyond what’s covered in the inca survey)
Nexxt Intelligence’s inca platform blends qualitative capabilities with quantitative functionality. The chatbot-led survey solution uses AI to probe participants’ answers to open-ended questions in real-time facilitating a two-way conversation, much like a human moderator. Beyond the AI-driven inca SmartProbe and back-end analytics, the survey platform features an interactive chat interface, digitized projective techniques, specialized tools, and various quantitative question types with corresponding analytics.
“Understanding the human heart and mind through the lens of technology isn’t just about data—it’s about creating deeper connections and fostering genuine empathy. Integrating the Nexxt Intelligence | inca solution which is Conversational AI, includes real-time dynamic customized inca Smartprobing and projective techniques is groundbreaking. It raises the standard of the effectiveness of traditional research and makes research more engaging and conversational … This emotional intelligence allows Microsoft to tailor our offerings more precisely, ensuring higher satisfaction and loyalty … and enables Microsoft to build more intuitive, user-centric experiences and craft compelling, emotionally-driven marketing strategies that connect with customers on a deeper level.”
— Romani Patel, Senior PM, MicrosoftIntelligent and personalized conversations, facilitated through a modern and interactive survey format, significantly enhanced Xbox gamers engagement in this research. By creating a natural, conversational and inviting environment for a two-way, open dialogue, the research not only elicited deeper and richer responses from engaged customers but also encouraged more introverted voices to contribute their thoughts meaningfully.
Central to the success of this research was its ability to delve deep into the emotional narratives of Xbox gamers on a large scale. Digital projective techniques, combined with the dynamic inca SmartProbe, facilitated real-time, in-depth conversations akin to those conducted by a human moderator. This approach uncovered nuanced emotions that traditional quantitative surveys could not capture. By fine-tuning the AI capabilities with human researchers’ guidance, the research effectively uncovered the full intricacies of each participant’s emotional experiences.
Traditionally, the direct actionable impact of qualitative insights has been elusive. Through Conversational AI, the research captured heartfelt stories and emotions from Xbox gamers, quantified these emotional narratives, linked them to business KPIs, and identified key priorities, enabling Microsoft to build, measure, and enhance memorable moments to extend brand love, and ultimately reinforce the mission of bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet.
