Are AI Agents Taking Online Surveys? Estimating the Threat and Implications for Protecting Data Quality
Presented by
Stephanie Chen
Assistant Professor of Marketing, London Business School
About this Webinar
Recent advances in LLMs have raised serious concerns that AI agents may be posing as human participants in online surveys, undermining data quality. However, it remains unclear how prevalent these agents are on online survey platforms. In this webinar, Stephanie will present research examining the prevalence of AI-agent responding across common online survey platforms using a set of validated AI detection tests embedded in surveys. This research finds wide variation in rates of respondents failing AI detection tests across platforms. Further, it demonstrates that undetected AI agents can impact the results of online surveys. Stephanie will discuss the process used to validate AI detection tests, pitfalls in detecting AI-agent responses, and implications for incorporating AI detection into online surveys to monitor data quality as AI capabilities continue to evolve.
Stephanie Chen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at London Business School. She received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from New York University and was previously a Principal Researcher at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Prior to her academic career, she conducted market research at ZS Associates.