Do you still need focus groups? How AI-led interviews are transforming consumer insight

Qualitative research has always been about getting closer to the customer. Their thoughts, their feelings, their “why.”

For decades, focus groups have been the go-to method for marketers and insights teams. Gather a group. Ask open-ended questions. Look for patterns.

But in 2025, the question isn’t, "Do focus groups work?" It’s, "Are they still worth the time, cost, and effort?"

Because let’s face it: timelines are tighter, expectations are higher, and research needs to keep pace with marketing cycles that move fast.

What are focus groups?

Focus groups are small, moderated discussions with 6-10 participants designed to explore perceptions, attitudes, and responses to ideas, products, or messages. They’ve long been considered the qualitative standard in both B2B and B2C contexts.

They allow teams to:

• Observe body language and emotional cues

• Explore social influence in real-time

• Collect varied perspectives in a single setting

But what once felt like a strength can now become a bottleneck. Especially when scale, speed, and consistency are non-negotiables.

Why focus groups fall short (even if they’ve had a good run)

The traditional focus group promised rich, spontaneous insights. But it also brings real operational pain.

They’re difficult to coordinate

Between recruiting, scheduling, booking facilities, and briefing moderators, running a single group can take weeks. If you're researching across markets or segments, that timeline multiplies.

They may introduce bias

Group settings change how people behave. One dominant voice can steer the discussion. Participants tend to perform for others, and social desirability biases creep in. The result? Filtered feedback and diluted honesty. Great for performance art, less great for truth.

They don’t scale well

Need to test five concepts across three markets and two personas? That’s not one group. It’s dozens. And with each comes more time, more cost, and more logistical fun for everyone involved.

They’re slow to analyze

After the sessions, you’re left with hours of footage and the joy of coding, tagging, and synthesizing insights, often manually. Sharing those insights in a structured, digestible way can take just as long as running the research itself.

Enter AI-led qualitative: why insight teams are making the shift

From synthesis tools to adaptive prompts, AI has been showing up across the qualitative research workflow. And for good reason: it solves real-world operational pain points that traditional methods can’t keep up with.

Whether it’s speeding up analysis, surfacing more accurate patterns, or eliminating repetitive manual work, AI is helping teams focus more on what matters. It interprets the “why,” not transcribing the “what.”

One format in particular is gaining serious traction: AI-powered, asynchronous interviews.

AI-led interviews are changing the game

Async interviews aren’t just a digitized version of in-depth interviews. They’re something new: purpose-built for how fast research needs to move today.

Here’s why teams are shifting:

Research cycles are getting shorter

Campaigns launch in weeks, not quarters. Insights need to be gathered, synthesized, and applied fast.

Async interviews remove the blockers: no scheduling, no moderators, and no facilities to book. Launch a study, gather responses, and start analyzing in hours, not days.

Qual needs to scale, not stall

Modern research isn’t one message in one market. It’s testing across regions, personas, and variations, sometimes all at once.

AI-led methods let you run dozens (or hundreds) of 1:1 interviews without multiplying time, cost, or coordination effort.

More honesty, less performance

Private, asynchronous interviews reduce social pressure. People respond in their own time, in their own words. The result? Less groupthink, real consumer insight. Fewer polite nods. More actual feelings.

Analysis without the manual lift

AI handles the heavy lifting: highlight reels, transcripts, sentiment, themes, quotes. You name it. So instead of scrubbing through hours of footage, you’re reviewing clean, structured insight, ready to share with stakeholders.

Focus groups vs. AI-led interviews: A practical comparison

Sometimes, you still need a group dynamic. But when speed, scale, and honesty matter, AI-led interviews are hard to beat.

Where does this leave us?

Focus groups aren’t dead. But they’re no longer the default.

Insight teams now have more flexible, scalable tools that keep up with the speed of marketing and product development. The shift isn’t about abandoning the depth of qual. It’s about rethinking the workflow.

If your team needs to test fast, scale easily, and generate insights that drive strategy, it may be time to modernize the method.

One way to do it: Conveo

Conveo helps research and marketing teams adopt AI-led qualitative without sacrificing depth.

• Run async video interviews with real people

• Let AI analyze and extract emotional drivers, themes, and quotes

• Get structured insight summaries, fast

• Share highlights with stakeholders in just a few clicks

You don’t lose the depth. You gain back the time, flexibility, and clarity.

Explore how Conveo supports fast, scalable qualitative research.

Final thought: qualitative insight should move as fast as your team does

Focus groups were built for a different era. For teams working across geos, testing multiple ideas, or running iterative creative, async AI-led interviews offer a better way.

You still get voice-of-customer insight. You still get real emotion. But now you get it faster, with less bias, and in a format that scales.

That’s what modern qual looks like.