Episode 12: Kathy Cheng, inca

Episode OverviewKathy Cheng, founder and CEO of inca, on why better survey experiences produce better data — and what the industry needs to change.Episode HighlightsFrom qual to quant — by accident. Kathy built inca out of frustration with traditional surveys, bringing qualitative thinking — projective techniques, conversational flow, participant engagement — into quantitative research at scale.The participant experience problem. Poor data quality is not the fault of respondents. It is the result of survey designs that have barely changed since the 1930s. Improving the experience improves the data.AI as part of the whole, not a bolt-on. inca's AI moderation capability is central to the product, but Kathy argues that conversational AI embedded in a poor overall experience will not deliver meaningful results on its own.Synthetic data: a useful tool, not a replacement. Kathy sees synthetic data as a short-term response to declining survey quality, and worries that adopting it at scale means giving up on the belief that people have genuine things to share.The blurring of qual and quant. The more significant shift in the industry over the next few years will not be technological — it will be human. Researchers will need to develop skills across both traditions to get the most from new platforms.Always go to a meeting with an ask. The single most useful piece of business advice Kathy has received — and one she now applies consistently as a self-described introvert running a growing technology business.About the GuestKathy Cheng is the founder and CEO of Nexxt Intelligence, the company behind inca — which stands for Inquisitive Natural Conversation Agent.She started her career as a qualitative researcher and founded the business around a decade ago with a simple idea: that surveys should work more like conversations. inca combines structured survey tools with AI moderation, projective techniques and conversational probing to improve the participant experience and the quality of the data it produces. The platform is used for both quantitative research and qualitative research at scale.Learn more about the impact of technology and AI on research, insights & analytics at Insight Platforms.