AI Avatars Are Progressing Healthcare Market Research

Authored by: Dan Coffin

At Research Partnership, we’ve been leveraging AI avatars to elevate the quality and impact of market research across a range of applications. By avatars, we mean digital human-like representative videos that can be made to speak, gesture, and respond in ways that mimic real human communication. These tools are already proving their value, enhancing both how we conduct studies and how we bring insights to life. But we believe their evolution into more interactive, conversational human-like interfaces could transform the landscape even further.

Real-World Applications of AI Avatars in Research Today

We’ve integrated AI avatars into our research design in several practical, commercially valuable ways, such as:

• Creating more immersive stimuli: In conducting future demand assessments, for example, avatars are present, on-screen and talking to the doctor to project a future ‘place’, to better outline the profile attributes, and to better frame the respondent into a more realistic future behavioral mindset. These immersive stimuli help improve the quality of insights for forecasting.
• Understanding decision making: In simulated consultations with physicians, we can set up avatars to portray patients. These shed light on behavioral and attitudinal responses – which is valuable for tailoring strategies that influence real-world prescribing behavior.

Using AI Avatars to Enhance Insight Delivery and Socialization

• Taking the role of presenter: To provide customized outputs for different stakeholders, presented in different languages and focusing on selected insights for different client teams.
• Acting as persona: Avatars that embody patient or HCP personas can help stakeholders understand their customers on a deeper level. This emotional and cognitive connection often clarifies the problem the study set out to solve and drives more impactful strategic thinking.

What’s Next: Conversational AI Avatars and the Future of Research

While the way we are using avatars in market research today is scripted and one-directional, we are working with our AI and innovation teams on developments where the next leap is to develop fully interactive avatars. These are powered by more advanced large language models, capable of real-time verbal and non-verbal interaction, adaptive communication, and dynamic response – we are already trialling and using this and seeing exciting results.

Inizio, our parent company, has harnessed this technology to create fully interactive digital “physicians” that allow MSLs to rehearse real-world conversations. These simulations enhance objection handling and communication skills, significantly boosting MSL preparedness and performance.

In market research, the emerging applications for truly interactive, conversational AI avatars will be evolutionary. Here we’d like to share some examples of where we are headed:

• Qualitative moderation: Imagine an interactive avatar acting as the moderator of an in-depth interview or focus group – able to lead, adapt, and even switch languages in real time. This could democratize access to research, reduce costs, and speed up timelines.
• Persona simulation in workshops: Fully interactive avatars that simulate stakeholder personas during ideation sessions, helping teams walk in their shoes and co-create more relevant solutions.
• Interactive dashboards: With an interactive avatar interface layered on top, stakeholders can interact with data dashboards conversationally – asking questions and receiving insights in a more digestible format.
• Enhanced campaign testing: Interactive avatars used to test early-stage campaigns before human respondents are brought in – speeding up iteration and improving creative effectiveness.
• Real-time moment-of-truth simulations: Using interactive avatars trained to simulate real patients, we can recreate the critical dialogue between patient and doctor, providing rich insights into the decision-making moment marketers crave.
• Smart recruitment and engagement: Interactive avatars used to identify and engage potential respondents online, conducting initial interviews and reducing recruitment friction.
• Immersive experiences via AR/VR: In virtual environments, interactive avatars could engage participants in lifelike scenarios—benefiting everything from stakeholder engagement to patient education.

Looking Ahead: The Human-AI Partnership in Market Research

At Research Partnership, we’re continuing to test and expand the applications of avatars in insight generation. While today they already add real commercial value, tomorrow they could redefine how we interact with data, stakeholders, and patients – bridging the gap between artificial intelligence and human understanding.

As the technology improves further, the interactive avatar will look less like a tool and more like a partner – a digital human capable of engaging, empathizing, and responding in ways that bring us closer to the people we seek to understand. Sounds like science fiction – but this is where we’re going.

Interested in learning more about how we’re using AI in healthcare market research?
Contact us to explore how we can help you deliver smarter insights.