From Static to Spectacular: Transforming Qualitative Deliverables

I've been especially looking forward to writing this article in The Campaign for Real Qual series because it explores what I believe is one of the most exciting and perhaps overlooked areas for innovation available to qualitative researchers today - our deliverables.

Our deliverables are what our clients are left with, and ultimately what create change within our clients. As qualitative practitioners, we’ve long recognised the power of storytelling, even before it became fashionable. Good deliverables bring you close to participants and inspire and incite you to act.

It’s true that some research agencies (for many years) have come up with innovative ways to deliver their insights. However, for many, the default deliverable remains the traditional static PowerPoint deck. In this article, I’ll offer some ideas on new possibilities that we see through AI advancements. I’ll cover three key areas:

1. Improving current visualisation workflows to efficiently create more impactful presentations.

2. Exploring innovative ways to deliver and embed insights, aligning with how modern audiences consume and interact with content.

3. Extending the strategic value of our deliverables by cross-referencing existing knowledge and highlighting future opportunities.

Streamlining and Improving Current Workflows

Anyone who has spent long hours creating PowerPoint presentations from scratch knows the challenges well - time-consuming largely manual processes, repetitive visual elements, and often limited creative scope due to creeping deadlines. But today we have AI-powered tools that can dramatically streamline this workflow, making presentations quicker, more creative, and impactful. “Automation? No thank you” you might say. But please bear with me.

One tool I’ve found particularly impressive is Gamma. With Gamma, qualitative researchers can quickly transform textual reports or outlines into visually engaging presentations. There are two straightforward workflows for researchers:

When Speed is More Important

Feeding a topline text summary directly into Gamma for immediate visualisation. This is particularly useful when you have used AI for your analysis and gives the potential to produce a visual topline in hours, not days. This option gives less initial control over the slide production – however all slides are easy to work with and adjust (once you have got used to working with Gamma).

When Control is More Important

Creating a text outline of the slides and then giving the outline to Gamma to work with. This is a great way to get ‘the story’ clear in your head before visualising – two stages that often get collapsed when under time pressure. If you have a text topline already available, then optionally you can use ChatGPT (or similar) to help create a first draft of the outline, from which you can then iteratively work with ChatGPT to finalise.

ChatGPT Image Upgrade

We’ve all used stock images that are cliched or just don’t communicate quite what we are trying to say. The recent ChatGPT update, which integrates DALL E fully into the platform, is a major upgrade and can help solve this problem. Forget the gimmicks - we’ve all probably seen on our LinkedIn feeds its outputs of action figures and Ghibli style animation - it has some seriously useful new functionality. You can easily create infographics, photo realistic images and seamlessly combine different visual elements. Want that logo on that building – sure! Got the ideal image of a person but want to place her to a new setting – no problem! Want to change her attire to look more casual – you got it!

I believe there is an opportunity here to create distinctive brand assets which can get re-used. Imagine creating an image of a persona, which the client loves and wants to re-use to embed in the organisation. Here is an example I created below (purely fictional):

Example Persona Created in ChatGPT

Firstly, the creation of photo-realistic images conveys the sense of a real person. Using other tools (see below), this person can also be brought to life and interacted with. This can bring ‘consumer closeness’ to a new level.

Exploring New, Innovative Ways to Deliver and Embed Insights

Beyond simply improving current workflows, AI tools give us completely new and creative ways to deliver insights. It’s not just about being more efficient or tech-savvy - there’s a deeper reason why we need to rethink our deliverables. Stakeholders today are overloaded with information and short on time. To truly land insights, we must match the formats and styles they naturally engage with - interactive, visual, personalized. Deliverables that speak their language are more likely to be acted upon, shared across teams, and remembered long after the debrief. These approaches might not yet be mainstream, but for qualitative researchers open to experimentation, they represent significant potential for differentiation and impact.

GPT Based Deliverables - Interactive Reports & Personas

One area we are already seeing the industry embrace is creating custom GPTs (in ChatGPT) to deliver interactive reports and/or personas. These are relatively easy to set up and can significantly deepen stakeholder engagement with insights. Rather than passively receiving static reports, clients can directly interact with the reports or personas, through dynamic conversational exchanges. This approach can make insights more memorable, personalised for different individuals, and ultimately more actionable. In the spirit of experimentation, at the end of The Campaign for Real Qual, we will create a custom GPT to interact with the ideas presented.

Video

Many qualitative researchers are already leveraging participant videos effectively in their presentations, typically for participant quotes or observational insights. However, modern text-to-video tools like Runway, Leonardo or Luma now make it possible to add a new level of creativity to transform textual insights into visually compelling video narratives. This shift reflects broader changes in how we all consume content - think TikTok, Instagram Reels, and short-form educational videos. These formats are sticky, emotionally resonant, and designed for sharing - exactly the qualities we want in our insights. The example tools above are getting better every week and can be used with little prior knowledge. Although you do need some ‘skin in the game’ to be able to produce effective video content.

Another fascinating development is the use of multilingual video avatars, created via platforms such as Synthesia & HeyGen. Again, this represents an exciting area for experimentation to determine effective use cases. Here are some scenarios we could see this being useful:

1. Earlier, we discussed creating a photorealistic persona. Imagine now bringing that persona to life - a lifelike avatar describing her life, her aspirations, her stresses and the tensions between her aspirational and real behaviour

2. Presentation delivery – in global studies, an avatar can be used to ‘present’ key insights, the main advantage being that the avatar (unlike most humans) can present in all major languages, making this an attractive option for global studies

Something quirkier….

Finally, some more experimental formats that might be fun to explore - podcasts and interactive quizzes. Automated podcasts, though still experimental in qualitative research delivery, offer clients and stakeholders an accessible and convenient way to engage deeply with insights (on the morning commute?). Using AI summarisation tools like Notebook LM, podcasts can be produced quickly, efficiently, and engagingly. We haven’t explored this fully yet, but in the spirit of experimentation, we plan to produce a podcast version of The Campaign for Real Qual, based on our forthcoming eBook. And we’ll do this unashamedly - in the knowledge that few people have time to read 10,000+ words of content.

Interactive quizzes similarly provide stakeholders with a gamified, engaging method to reinforce key insights, ensuring deeper internalisation and prompting practical action. These can easily be created using ChatGPT or similar platforms.

While these tools offer exciting new possibilities, it's important to approach them with a balanced view. Not all clients will immediately embrace AI-generated content or avatars. Budget, data security, and legal compliance (especially around synthetic media) may be limiting factors. Experimentation is key - but so is dialogue with clients about what adds value and feels credible to their stakeholders.

Extending Value – Cross-Referencing and Future-proofing Insights

We see a third opportunity. Deliverables can move beyond purely project-based outputs and deliver additional strategic value by contextualising insights and highlighting future opportunities. AI tools enable qualitative researchers to swiftly cross-reference their findings against existing research, greatly enriching the context and strategic depth of deliverables. This may of course be the remit of the client researcher, but presents opportunities for agencies, with a body of work already in place for a client. As an example, it is quite simple to set up a custom GPT to store all knowledge (although there are limits on the number of documents). With many LLMs offering agentic Deep Research functionality (including ChatGPT and Perplexity), primary research can also be contextualised within available public secondary data. Again, an opportunity to experiment and see what’s possible.

AI tools can also help suggest unanswered questions or future research opportunities arising from current findings. This continuous integration and learning reinforce the strategic value of qualitative research, maintaining relevance and encouraging long-term client engagement.

Another powerful capability is facilitating the transition from qualitative exploration to quantitative measurement. AI tools can be used as an aid to questionnaire development, ensuring the correct language is used and referencing house styles. Synthetic respondents can also be generated from the qualitative study to pilot and refine the questionnaire (in cases where a pilot with humans isn’t feasible). The intended spirit once again is highlighting the possible and encouraging researchers to experiment to see what works for them.

Conclusion: The Future of Qualitative Deliverables

Qualitative deliverables, at their core, are powerful storytelling tools designed to inform, inspire, and support evidence-based decision making. They way we engage with and consume information is evolving rapidly evolving - shorter attention spans, reduced reading time and a growing preference for visual and interactive content. If you’ve made it this far in a largely text based article – well done! There are several AI tools that enable new possibilities, from creating more efficient workflows, to truly delivering something new and innovative and to amplify the impact and strategic value of our work.

Ultimately, innovative qualitative deliverables represent a significant strategic advantage, enabling us to better connect insights to action and meaningfully embed them within client organisations. As qualitative researchers, embracing these innovations ensures our insights remain compelling, impactful, and indispensable in an increasingly digital and interactive world.

Next up, we have a guest writer Dave McCaughan, who will be talking about the importance of maintaining an ‘original voice’, in a world increasingly full of AI written content.