QualifyAI will work with artificial intelligence (AI) consultancy Deeper Insights to build custom AI agents trained on two decades of qualitative research data to help speed up and automate qual.

Initial products launched by the company include Qualify:Comms, Qualify:Ideas and Qualify:Audiences.

Fawcus (pictured left) is owner and group chief executive at Firefish, while Owen (pictured right) is head of innovation at the company.

They will both retain their roles at Firefish and run QualifyAI as co-founders, working in a hybrid fashion. QualifyAI is a separate company to Firefish.

Fawcus said: “I am a qualitative research evangelist and lifer – and for the first time, in generative AI, technology allows us to keep what is special about qual research, the focus on the human, without stripping it down to be superficial and reductive, while delivering speed, scale and value.

“We’re working with Deeper Insights to ensure that the way our offer executes qualitative research is based on smart principles and high quality, so more people can benefit, and more fast-moving business problems can get solved with the power of qualitative research.”

Owen added: “Having put technology at the forefront of my research career, I’m thrilled to be able to take this next step with Jem, by using all of the power of AI in ways that stay true to the heart of the qualitative research ethos and giving more people the chance to benefit from rich human insight at the speed of AI.”