Sentiment analysis is a core technique in qualitative research that uses linguistic and computational methods to detect emotional tone across participant responses. By systematically coding language for positive, negative, or neutral sentiment, researchers can surface patterns that would be difficult to identify through manual review alone. In the context of qualitative research, sentiment analysis goes beyond simple keyword counting to capture nuance, context, and intensity of feeling. Enterprise research teams use it to prioritise themes, track shifts in customer perception, and translate large volumes of unstructured feedback into actionable insights that inform product, brand, and experience decisions.