14 Chapter 9: Surveys

In this chapter, we explore the use of surveys as a versatile research method that serves both quantitative and qualitative purposes. While surveys are typically associated with collecting standardized data from large populations, they can also provide meaningful qualitative insights when designed with open-ended questions. We begin by discussing the strengths and limitations of survey research, highlighting its efficiency, reach, and flexibility, alongside challenges like bias, low response rates, and design pitfalls.

Next, we turn to best practices for designing effective surveys, drawing on recommendations from established sources like Creswell and Pew Research Center. This includes practical guidance on wording questions clearly, avoiding common mistakes, and structuring your questionnaire logically.

From there, we shift focus to the growing role of AI in survey design. We explain how AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can help researchers draft, refine, and customize survey questions with greater precision. We also offer hands-on suggestions for using these tools to improve clarity, reduce bias, and tailor questions to different audiences. Finally, We present a curated selection of AI-powered survey tools that facilitate the creation and analysis of surveys.

On Surveys

Surveys are a widely used research method that can serve both quantitative and qualitative inquiries, depending on how they are structured and analyzed. While they are traditionally associated with quantitative research especially due to their ability to collect standardized data from large population, they also hold value in qualitative research, particularly when open-ended questions are incorporated to explore participants’ perspectives in greater depth.

One of the key advantages of surveys is their efficiency. Researchers can distribute them quickly reaching broad and diverse groups through various formats including online forms, telephone interviews, paper-based questionnaires, and in-person administration. This flexibility makes surveys a preferred choice for studies that aim to identify patterns and generalize findings to larger populations (Sheppard, 2020).

However, surveys are not limited to structured, numerical data. Many researchers integrate open-ended questions or employ follow-up interviews to capture richer insights that go beyond standardized responses. This approach acknowledges that while surveys can tell us what people think or do, they may not fully explain why they hold certain views or engage in specific behaviors. In such cases, qualitative elements, such as narrative responses, can complement the numerical findings and offer a more nuanced understanding.

That said, surveys do come with limitations. The rigidity of pre-formulated questions means that researchers cannot easily clarify misunderstandings or probe deeper into unexpected responses. Additionally, issues like response bias, low participation rates, and the challenge of designing truly neutral questions can impact data quality (Sheppard, 2020). To mitigate these risks, careful survey design, pilot testing, and strategies to encourage honest responses such as ensuring anonymity are essential.

Survey Design Tips

Creating an effective survey takes more than writing down a list of questions, it requires strategic thinking about structure, language, and flow. Each decision in the design process can affect how respondents understand the questions, how they engage with the survey, and ultimately, the quality of the data you collect. A poorly designed survey, no matter how well-intentioned, can lead to misleading findings, low response rates, or data that lacks reliability.

A good survey design means being deliberate about every element: the wording of questions, the sequence in which they’re presented, and the kind of responses you’re aiming to capture. The tips below, informed by Creswell (2009) and Pew Research, offer practical guidance for building surveys that are clear, focused, and capable of producing meaningful results.

• Ensure Clarity and Precision: Use simple, direct language. Avoid technical jargon, abstract terms, or any phrasing that might leave room for interpretation. Clarity supports accurate responses.
• Use Neutral Wording: Keep your tone balanced. A well-phrased question doesn’t imply what the “right” answer might be, it simply invites the respondent’s perspective.
• Balance Open- and Closed-Ended Questions: Closed-ended questions give you structured, comparable data, while open-ended ones allow for more personal, detailed responses. A mix helps you see both the patterns and the nuance.
• Maintain Consistency for Tracking Trends: If your study involves repeated measures (e.g., pre- and post-tests), make sure the wording and structure of key questions remain exactly the same across versions.
• Use Randomization: Randomizing the order of answer choices can help reduce bias from respondents who tend to select the first few options without considering all of them.
• Keep Response Options Limited: Avoid overwhelming participants with too many choices. Aim for four to five well-differentiated options that make decision-making easier.
• Pilot Test the Survey: Before full distribution, test your survey with a small group. Their feedback will help identify confusing questions, technical issues, or anything that feels off.
• Consider Context Effects: The order in which questions appear matters. Earlier items can shape how respondents interpret and answer those that follow especially on related topics.
• Structure the Questionnaire Logically: Begin with easier or more engaging questions to draw respondents in. Group related items together and save demographic or sensitive questions for the end unless there’s a specific reason to place them earlier.

AI Survey Tools

AI-powered platforms have significantly changed how surveys, questionnaires, and polls are created and analyzed. What used to be a manual and time-consuming process is now faster, more accurate, and far easier to manage thanks to a growing range of AI-driven tools. These platforms can help you draft better questions, identify bias in your phrasing, suggest improvements, and even analyze patterns in responses.

While many of these tools existed before the recent wave of generative AI, most have now integrated advanced features powered by models like GPT. As a result, you can now create surveys that are well-structured and tailored to your research goals, complete with real-time feedback and predictive insights.

A few things to keep in mind as you explore these tools:

• Most are freemium: You’ll often get basic features for free, but advanced options such as AI-generated insights or response analytics require a paid plan. Try the free versions first to see what works best for your needs.
• Google Forms is still a solid option: It may lack AI enhancements, but it remains reliable, user-friendly, and entirely free. It’s still our go-to for quick and straightforward surveys.
• Different tools do different things: Some excel at question generation, others at data analysis or workflow automation. It’s worth testing a few to find one that fits your specific research style.

In the next section, we highlight a curated selection of the most useful AI survey tools available today. Each offers a distinct set of features from smart question writing to advanced analytics to help you design better surveys with less effort.

1. AI Chatbots

AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are excellent tools for crafting and refining survey questions. When provided with clear context such as your research goals, audience, and the kind of data you want to collect, they can help you develop well-structured questions that align with best practices.

Here are a few practical ways to use AI chatbots to design surveys:

• Analyze examples: Upload a sample survey and ask AI to break down what works well and why. Example prompt: “Can you review this survey and highlight what makes its questions effective?”
• Refine your questions: Submit a draft of your survey and ask AI to improve clarity, remove bias, and check for confusing wording. Example prompt: “Can you help me revise these questions to make them clearer and more neutral?”
• Generate new items: Ask the chatbot to create new questions based on your research topic and data needs (quantitative or qualitative). Example prompt: “Generate 10 questions on student motivation in online learning, mix of open- and closed-ended.”
• Apply design principles: Provide the AI with survey design guidelines and ask it to check your draft against them. Example prompt: “Review this survey using best practices in survey design. What improvements would you suggest?”
• Tailor for different audiences: Adjust the tone and language to fit different respondent groups. Example prompt: “Adapt this survey for high school students instead of adult professionals.”
• Organize question flow: Improve the sequence for better logic and reduced bias. Example prompt: “Can you rearrange these questions for a smoother flow?”
• Write answer choices: Generate balanced and distinct response options for multiple-choice questions. Example prompt: “What are five non-overlapping options for ‘How often do you exercise per week?’”
• Structure open-ended responses: Turn broad questions into structured formats when needed. Example prompt: “Convert this open-ended question into a multiple-choice version with an ‘Other’ option.”

Besides AI chatbots there are also a wide variety of survey specific tools that enable you to create surveys. Below are some of our recommendations in this regard.

2. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey remains one of the most widely used tools for creating surveys and for good reason. It combines an intuitive interface with powerful AI features that help you design, distribute, and analyze surveys quickly and professionally.

Key AI-Powered Features:

• SurveyMonkey Genius: Provides AI-generated suggestions to improve survey design and insights.
• Build with AI: Create full surveys from a short prompt in seconds.
• Question Type Prediction: Recommends the appropriate question type as you type.
• Answer Genius: Refines response options for clarity and balance.
• Survey Score: Evaluates your survey’s structure and offers tips for improvement.
• Response Quality Filter: Automatically flags low-quality or inconsistent responses.
• Sentiment Analysis: Classifies open-ended responses as positive, negative, or neutral.
• AI-Powered Insights: Identifies significant patterns and trends in your data.

2. Fillout

Fillout AI is a quick and user-friendly tool for building smart, polished surveys. You can start from scratch, import existing questions, or simply describe what you need in plain language and the AI will generate a well-structured survey in minutes. It also helps refine your wording to reduce bias and improve clarity. Customization is easy with a drag-and-drop editor, a variety of question types, and smart suggestions from the built-in AI assistant. Need to shift formats? You can convert your survey into a quiz or poll with a click. Sharing is equally flexible: distribute via link, email, social media, or embed it directly into your site. It also supports importing surveys from Google Forms or Typeform.

3. Jotform

Jotform AI Survey Generator allows you to generate surveys by entering a prompt, uploading a document, or scanning a file. The tool automatically builds a structured survey, which you can easily customize by adding questions, and changing layouts. Jotform supports multiple question formats like multiple-choice, yes/no, and open-ended, and offers over 2,000 ready-made templates for various needs. You can also turn surveys into interactive quizzes with scoring and instant results. Once your survey is ready, sharing it is simple through email, social media, or website embedding.

4. Typeform

Typeform offers an efficient way to build, customize, and analyze surveys. Using its AI Form Builder, you can generate a complete survey in seconds by simply describing your needs, while the AI Form Importer makes transferring questions from tools like Google Forms quick and easy. Once your survey is active, Typeform AI enhances the experience through dynamic question adjustments and intelligent follow-up. On the analysis side, Insights AI summarizes key takeaways, Ask AI helps you explore results through conversation, and built-in tools for qualitative and quantitative analysis turn raw feedback into actionable insights.

5. Forms.app

Forms.app is another good option to consider. Simply enter a prompt, and the platform instantly generates a ready-to-use survey. Its AI features go further by suggesting answer options based on your questions providing alternative question phrasing for clarity, and even generating questions directly from large text inputs. Forms.app also offers a wide range of pre-built templates to save you even more time. For added flexibility, it integrates smoothly with tools like Slack, Google Sheets, and Trello.

6. Formstack

Formstack offers a powerful no-code platform for creating online forms, surveys, and workflows with ease. Its AI-powered form generation tool provides smart suggestions and ready-made templates to help you build forms quickly. Formstack integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Google Sheets which makes it easy to automate workflows, collect data, and generate documents or digital signatures. Users can access a wide range of customizable templates and manage forms from both desktop and mobile devices.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we explored the use of surveys as a flexible research method that can serve both quantitative and qualitative purposes. We discussed their main strengths and limitations, offered best practices for designing effective surveys, and highlighted how AI tools like ChatGPT, SurveyMonkey, and others can assist you in crafting clear and well-structured questions. We also introduced a range of AI-powered survey platforms that simplify every stage of the process, from generating questions to analyzing responses.

With this chapter on surveys, we come to the end of this part on data collection, where we examined interviews and surveys as two of the most commonly used methods for gathering research data.  In the next part of the book, we shift our attention from data collection to data analysis. We will explore how AI tools can help researchers make sense of their data, analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting findings with greater speed and precision.