How to Use AI for Customer Discovery

How to Use AI for Customer Discovery

By Deb Miedema

 

Customer discovery is essential for any business venture, but it is very time-intensive. How can you make it more efficient and insightful? By integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into your customer discovery interview process, you can conduct better interviews, uncover market opportunities, and craft a compelling value proposition. Let’s take a look at some strategies to utilize AI in your customer discovery process.

 

Use AI to Plan and Practice Your Interviews

AI can structure your interviews by generating relevant, open-ended questions and simulating customer conversations. Practicing with AI helps refine your approach, anticipate responses, and improve questioning techniques—leading to richer insights. Be sure to ask the AI how you did after you’re done!

 

Identify Overlooked Customer Segments

Could you be missing an untapped market? AI uncovers niche or underserved customer groups beyond your immediate network, helping you refine your strategy. Understanding customer motivations allows for better decision-making and market positioning.

 

Clarify and Strengthen Your Value Proposition

Does your messaging align with what customers value most? AI-powered sentiment analysis can extract key themes from customer feedback, surveys, and competitor data to refine your value proposition and ensure it resonates with your audience.

 

Gain Competitive Intelligence and Track Market Trends

AI can scan competitor websites, industry reports, and customer sentiment data to identify market gaps and forecast trends. This helps you position your offering effectively and make informed, data-driven decisions.

 

Limitations of AI

Generative AI is a powerful tool, however, there are some limitations to keep in mind when using this technology:

  • You need to interview customers to validate the ideas and hypotheses created by AI tools.
  • AI can sometimes generate misleading or false information.
  • Avoid inputting sensitive information such as intellectual property or personal information.

 

AI-Powered Prompts for Customer Discovery

Now that we have reviewed some strategies to effectively use AI for customer discovery, let’s take a look at specific prompts you can utilize:

 

Generating Customer Personas and Archetypes

  • “Generate three distinct customer personas for people in [industry/area], including demographics, behaviors, pain points, and motivations.”
  • “What are some unexpected or niche customer segments that might be interested in [product/service]?”

Identifying Customer Pain Points

  • “What common frustrations do customers in [industry/area] express on social media and review platforms?”
  • “Identify unmet needs and recurring pain points that [industry/product] customers repeatedly mention.”

Crafting Interview Questions

  • “Generate a list of open-ended customer discovery interview questions and a structured interview guide for early-stage startups in the [industry] space.”
  • “What questions should I ask potential customers to better understand their decision-making process when purchasing [product/service]?”

Refining the Value Proposition

  • “Suggest multiple versions of a value proposition for a [industry] startup focused on [problem].”
  • “Highlight key differentiators that would resonate most with [specific customer persona].”

Competitive Analysis & Market Gaps

  • “Review recent industry reports, customer reviews, and competitor offerings in [industry]. Identify whitespace opportunities and recurring unmet needs to highlight an opportunity for innovation.”
  • “Analyze the pricing, features, and customer feedback of [competitor A] and [competitor B]. Identify key differentiators and potential gaps where our [product/service] could stand out.”

Simulating and Practicing Customer Interviews

  • “Act as a [specific customer persona] in [industry/market] while I practice a customer discovery interview. When we’re finished, provide feedback about the questions I asked, including about my follow-on questions, anything I should have asked but didn’t, and how well I asked open-ended questions that elicited stories from the customer.”
  • “Act as an early adopter of [industry] technology. What concerns and motivations would you have when evaluating new solutions?”

Always Ask for More!

  • “What other customer segments should I consider?”
  • “Tell me more about whitespaces in [industry].”
  • “What other questions should I be asking my customers?”
  • “Who else is in my ecosystem that I might be missing?”
  • “What other pain points might [customer segment] be experiencing?”

 

Leverage these AI strategies to gain deeper insights and make smarter customer discovery decisions. Are you ready to refine your approach?

 

About the Author

Deb Miedema Deb Miedema spent over 20 years working on intellectual property teams at big tech and medical device companies as well as international law firms before coming to the University of Minnesota and the Great Lakes I-Corps Hub. In her current role, she works closely with graduate students, post-docs, research scientists, and faculty members who are eager to translate their research into impactful commercial ventures.