What Is Retrieval Augmented Generation?
Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) is a cutting-edge technology that combines the power of natural language processing (NLP), large language models, data visualization, and generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the retrieval and generation of text-based data. This innovative approach has the potential to revolutionize the way researchers and research teams conduct qualitative research on interviews, focus groups, and open-ended survey or feedback data.
The Evolution of Qualitative Research
Qualitative research has long been a valuable tool for gathering insights and understanding human behavior. It involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data, such as words, images, and videos, to gain a deeper understanding of a particular topic or phenomenon. However, the traditional methods of conducting qualitative research, such as manual coding and analysis, have their limitations. They are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and subject to human bias.
With the advancements in AI and NLP, researchers have been able to automate some of the processes involved in qualitative research. This has led to the development of tools like RAG, which are designed to enhance the retrieval and generation of text-based data.
How Does RAG Work?
RAG utilizes large language models, such as BERT and GPT-3, to understand the context and meaning of text-based data. These models are trained on massive amounts of data and are able to generate human-like text in response to a given prompt. This allows RAG to retrieve and generate relevant and coherent text, making it a powerful tool for qualitative research.
One of the key features of RAG is its ability to integrate retrieval and generation. This means that RAG can search through a vast amount of data and generate new text based on that data. This is particularly useful for researchers who want to explore a specific topic or theme within a large dataset. RAG can retrieve relevant information and then generate new insights and perspectives based on that information.
Benefits of RAG for Qualitative Research
RAG offers several benefits for researchers and research teams conducting qualitative research. These include:
Efficiency and Speed
RAG significantly reduces the time and effort required for manual coding and analysis. With its ability to retrieve and generate text, researchers can quickly and efficiently sift through large datasets and gain insights in a fraction of the time it would take using traditional methods.
Unbiased Results
Human bias is a common issue in qualitative research. RAG eliminates this problem by relying on data-driven insights rather than human interpretation. This allows for more objective and unbiased results.
New Perspectives and Insights
RAG’s ability to generate new text based on retrieved data allows researchers to uncover new perspectives and insights that may have been missed through traditional methods. This can lead to a deeper understanding of a topic or phenomenon.
Data Visualization
RAG also offers data visualization capabilities, allowing researchers to visually explore and analyze their data. This can be particularly useful for identifying patterns and trends within a dataset.
Use Cases of RAG
RAG can be applied in various research fields, including social sciences, psychology, marketing, and education. Some potential use cases of RAG in qualitative research include:
– Analyzing customer feedback to identify common themes and sentiments
– Exploring patterns and trends in focus group discussions
– Uncovering new insights in interview transcripts
– Identifying key themes and topics in open-ended survey responses
In Conclusion
Retrieval augmented generation is a powerful technology that has the potential to transform the way qualitative research is conducted. It combines the strengths of NLP, large language models, data visualization, and generative AI to enhance the retrieval and generation of text-based data. With its efficiency, unbiased results, and ability to uncover new perspectives, RAG is a valuable tool for researchers and research teams looking to gain deeper insights and understanding from their qualitative data.
How To Use Speak’s Retrieval Augmented Generation For Qualitative Research
Step 1: Create Your Speak Account
To start your transcription and analysis, you first need to create a Speak account. No worries, this is super easy to do!
Get a 7-day trial with 30 minutes of free audio and video transcription and analysis included when you sign up for Speak.
To sign up for Speak and start using Speak Magic Prompts with retrieval augmented generation, just visit the Speak app register page here.
Step 2: Upload Your Data
In Speak, you can seamlessly upload, transcribe, and translate audio, video, and text files all at once! If you have video, you can use our AI video-to-text converter to convert video to text; if you have audio, you can use our AI audio-to-text converter to convert audio to text. You can also transcribe YouTube videos and use AI to analyze text. You can see compatible file types for each option below.
Accepted Audio File Types
- MP3
- M4A
- WAV
- OGG
- WEBM
- M4P
Accepted Video File Types
- MP4
- M4V
- WMV
- AVI
- MOV
- FLV
Accepted Text File Types
- TXT
- Word Doc
CSV Imports
You can also upload CSVs of text files or audio and video files. You can learn more about CSV uploads and download Speak-compatible CSVs here.
With the CSVs, you can upload anything from dozens of YouTube videos to thousands of Qualitative Research files.
Publicly Available URLs
You can also upload media to Speak through a publicly available URL.
As long as the file type extension is available at the end of the URL you will have no problem importing your recording for automatic transcription and analysis.
YouTube URLs
Speak is compatible with YouTube videos. All you have to do is copy the URL of the YouTube video (for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKfcLcHeivc).
Speak will automatically find the file, calculate the length, and import the video.
If using YouTube videos, please make sure you use the full link and not the shortened YouTube snippet. Additionally, make sure you remove the channel name from the URL.
Speak Integrations
As mentioned, Speak also contains a range of integrations for Zoom, Zapier, Vimeo and more that will help you automatically transcribe your media.
This library of integrations continues to grow! Have a request? Feel encouraged to send us a message.
Step 3: Calculate and Pay the Total Automatically
Once you have your file(s) ready and load it into Speak, it will automatically calculate the total cost (you get 30 minutes of audio and video free in the 7-day trial – take advantage of it!).
If you are uploading text data into Speak, you do not currently have to pay any cost. Only the Speak Magic Prompts analysis would create a fee which will be detailed below.
Once you go over your 30 minutes or need to use Speak Magic Prompts, you can pay by subscribing to a personalized plan using our real-time calculator.
You can also add a balance or pay for uploads and analysis without a plan using your credit card.
Step 4: Wait for Speak to Analyze Your Qualitative Research
If you are uploading audio and video, our automated transcription software will prepare your transcript quickly. Once completed, you will get an email notification that your transcript is complete.
That email will contain a link back to the file so you can access the interactive media player with the transcript, analysis, and export formats ready for you.
If you are importing CSVs or uploading text files Speak will generally analyze the information much more quickly.
Speak will automatically embed your data in a well-architected vector database which allows you to use retrieval augmented generation for Qualitative Research.
Step 5: Visit Your File Or Folder
Speak is capable of analyzing both individual files and entire folders of data.
When you are viewing any individual file in Speak, all you have to do is click on the “Prompts” button.
If you want to analyze many files, all you have to do is add the files you want to analyze into a folder within Speak.
You can do that by adding new files into Speak or you can organize your current files into your desired folder with the software’s easy editing functionality.
Step 6: Select Speak Magic Prompts To Analyze Your Data
What Are Magic Prompts?
Speak Magic Prompts leverage innovation in artificial intelligence models often referred to as “generative AI”.
These models have analyzed huge amounts of data from across the internet to gain an understanding of language.
With that understanding, these “large language models” are capable of performing mind-bending tasks!
With Speak Magic Prompts, you can now perform those tasks on the audio, video and text data in your Speak account.
Retrieval augmented generation is what makes these Magic Prompts work so well.
Step 7: Select or Create Your Assistant Type
To help you get better results from Speak Magic Prompts, Speak has introduced “Assistant Type”.
These assistant types pre-set and provide context to the prompt engine for more concise, meaningful outputs based on your needs.
To begin, we have included:
- General
- Researcher
- Marketer
- Sales
- Recruiter
Choose the most relevant assistant type from the dropdown.
You can also create your own custom Assistant Template Type.
If you visit the new page Account Preferences, you can see there is now an area where you can create your own custom Assistant.
This allows you to set the context of the engine for higher quality and more consistent outputs.
For example, you could say:
“We are [COMPANY NAME]. We are analyzing [DATA] to understand how to improve [GOAL]. We want all responses to be concise and in table format.”.
This becomes a reusable template in any of your manual or automated Magic Prompts.
You can create multiple templates for different use cases.
As an example, the analysis you run on a focus group may be different than a one-on-one interview.
Step 8: Create Or Select Your Desired Prompt
Here are some examples prompts that you can apply to any file right now:
- Create a SWOT Analysis
- Give me the top action items
- Create a bullet point list summary
- Tell me the key issues that were left unresolved
- Tell me what questions were asked
A modal will pop up so you can use the suggested prompts we shared above to instantly and magically get your answers.
If you have your own prompts you want to create, select “Custom Prompt” from the dropdown and another text box will open where you can ask anything you want of your data!
Step 9: Review & Share Responses
Speak will generate a concise response for you in a text box below the prompt selection dropdown.
In this example, we ask to analyze all the Qualitative Research in the folder at once for the top product dissatisfiers.
You can easily copy that response for your presentations, content, emails, team members and more!
Speak Magic Prompts Pricing
Our team at Speak Ai continues to optimize the pricing for Magic Prompts and Speak as a whole.
Right now, anyone in the 7-day trial of Speak gets 100,000 characters included in their account.
If you need more characters, you can easily include Speak Magic Prompts in your plan when you create a subscription.
You can also upgrade the number of characters in your account if you already have a subscription.
Both options are available on the subscription page.
Alternatively, you can use Speak Magic Prompts by adding a balance to your account. The balance will be used as you analyze characters.
Completely Personalize Your Plan 📝
Here at Speak, we’ve made it incredibly easy to personalize your subscription.
Once you sign up, just visit our custom plan builder and select the media volume, team size, and features you want to get a plan that fits your needs.
No more rigid plans. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time.
Claim Your Special Offer 🎁
When you subscribe, you will also get a free premium add-on for three months!
That means you save up to $50 USD per month and $150 USD in total.
Once you subscribe to a plan, all you have to do is send us a live chat with your selected premium add-on from the list below:
- Premium Export Options (Word, CSV & More)
- Custom Categories & Insights
- Recorder Customization (Branding, Input & More)
- Media Player Customization
- Shareable Media Libraries
We will put the add-on live in your account free of charge!
What are you waiting for?
Refer Others & Earn Real Money 💸
If you have friends, peers and followers interested in using our platform, you can earn real monthly money.
You will get paid a percentage of all sales whether the customers you refer to pay for a plan, automatically transcribe media or leverage professional transcription services.
Use this link to become an official Speak affiliate.
Check Out Our Dedicated Resources📚
Book A Free Implementation Session 🤝
It would be an honour to personally jump on an introductory call with you to make sure you are set up for success.
Just use our Calendly link to find a time that works well for you. We look forward to meeting you!
