Generative AI as a Tool for Thematic Analysis: An Exploratory Study with ChatGPT

Joel-Edgar, Sian and Pan, Yu-Chun (2024) Generative AI as a Tool for Thematic Analysis: An Exploratory Study with ChatGPT. In: UK Academy for Information Systems Conference 2024 (UKAIS 2024), 25-26 April 2024, University of Kent, UK.

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Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has seen rapid development in recent years and it has increasingly applied to various fields. Research is no exception. However, there is much to be explored in this domain. This study aims to explore the suitability of current generative AI applications for research purposes. The focus is on the generative AI’s capability to synthesise information as a potential alternative or supplement to human-based information synthesisation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the thematic analysis produced by generative AI, this study compares the generative AI-produced results by ChatGPT with human-generated results, based on the same set of papers. The results show generative AI produced very similar results to humans, in terms of the topics themselves and the number of topics identified. However, there are also some minor mismatches between generative AI and human results.

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