YouGov Rolls Out Synthetic / Survey Hybrid 'Parallax'

YouGov has launched a custom research product called Parallax, combining simulated data from individually mapped AI 'twins' with validation from real consumers - the latter collected via 'superfast' automated surveys.

The product takes its name from the optical principle of parallax, whereby viewing something from two different viewpoints adds three-dimensional depth. The new tool gives two distinct perspectives on any research question, each 'compensating for the limitations of the other' and in combination delivering 'broader, deeper and more reliable insights than either approach alone '

YouGov says each twin in its model is built from granular, individual-level data drawn from the firm's global panel of more than 30 million members - thus avoiding the pitfalls of other synthetic panel approaches which 'rely on broad demographic archetypes or population-level stereotypes.' The counterpart, human feedback, is supplied by rapid surveys - either 30-minute delivery of results or longer if more customisation is required - and serves either to validate results or add depth. Sample for these can use a subset of the panel members whose twins were used, or another representative or targeted population, and validation can be applied to the full question set or focused on the most critical questions.

CEO and co-founder Stephan Shakespeare (pictured) sums up: 'Every other simulated research product asks you to trust the AI and hope for the best. YouGov Parallax keeps the receipts. We've been sceptical about synthetic data, and we were right to be - used without proper grounding, it gives you convincing-looking answers that can be fatally flawed and cannot state reliable confidence levels. So, we've built something different: individual-level twins mapped one-to-one to real people, grounded in the richest and most frequently updated public opinion dataset in the world, with the tools to validate outputs against responses from real consumers.'

Partner firm OriginalVoices provides both the digital twin infrastructure on which each panel member's twin is built and the inference platform that makes those twins rapidly accessible at scale.

YouGov says Parallax is designed for custom and ad hoc research, and does not serve as a replacement for tracking studies, which 'by their nature require consistent, real-world measurement over time'. The company's existing business is 'overwhelmingly' based on trackers of change, and Parallax adds 'a significant new capability on which many new future products and functionalities can be built.'

YouGov is currently offering a public demonstration of its simulated data at parallax.yougov.com .