AI bots are corrupting marketing data, from fake survey responses to misleading email engagement. As they become more sophisticated, they’re harder to detect — skewing research results, inflating metrics and wasting marketing budgets. Here’s how to protect your data from AI-driven manipulation.
How AI bots are gaming the system
Businessman and former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang once said, “Automation is no longer just a problem for those working in manufacturing. Physical labor was replaced by robots; mental labor is going to be replaced by AI and software.”
AI bots are starting to deliver on that promise in market research data, to the detriment of research practitioners and their clients. Recently, we deployed an online survey for a client, dangling a financial incentive for completing the 20-minute questionnaire. The AI bot sharks smelled blood in the water as soon as the link hit social media with the financial incentive.
Within a few hours, we had over 400 completed forms and over 1,500 (!) within a day. And their completion rate was much higher than among our real human survey takers. Yes, AI bots are now trained to navigate a 48-question survey with multiple choices, including intelligence designed to eliminate responses that don’t fit our profile.
If that isn’t shocking enough, no two survey responses were alike. Bots responded as if they were in big and small industries. Presumably, by gauging the length and difficulty of the survey, bots seemed to learn to slow their response pace down to more closely mirror the typical speed if taken by human beings, typically completing at similar lengths of time as our population of human participants.
Before we shut things down after discovering what was happening, the bots completed the survey 1,600 times out of 2,100 starts.
Dig deeper: How to make the most of your market research data
How did we detect them?
The most obvious giveaway was the sheer volume of responses received within a very short time. We had been sending out the survey via email and had anticipated a response rate based on experience, which was much slower.
Additionally, we can tell from the fake emails they created. The bot submissions ended with false Gmail accounts (an email was required to receive the gift card award) easily spotted as garbage.
How to prevent this in the future
Steve Wolf, our head of research, recommends five things to consider to prevent bots from hijacking your survey.
1. Gauge expected response metrics
Starting with a trusted, proprietary sample of respondents (e.g., a client’s customer base) can provide a baseline of start and completion rates and time per survey when taken from living, breathing humans.
2. Create a unique link
Don’t rely on one master weblink for the survey, which would make it very difficult to identify which respondents are coming from where. Instead, assign a unique URL per channel (email, client website, social media). This way, bot submissions can be isolated to the channel they took over.
3. Add open-ended questions
Bots have gotten smarter, but they still cannot answer open-ended questions. Sprinkle in 2–3 open-ended questions throughout the survey.
4. Use a ‘trap question’
Trap questions ask the survey taker to take action to prove they’re human, similar to a CAPTCHA. For example, a survey asks, “Please enter the number 32.” Bots are best at reading multiple-choice surveys and picking an option.
5. Include an invisible question
Another way to trick a bot is to use a hidden question. Use white font on a white background. Since humans can’t see the question, it will always be skipped, but bots will answer it.
Unfortunately, the best option would be to avoid tempting bots in the first place — especially as AI bots become increasingly sophisticated.
Just avoid “open” surveys — such as those promoted on social media channels or advertised via banner ads — and recruit target participants from other “closed” sources such as email or at least “quasi-closed” sources such as company newsletters or blog posts.
Lastly, today’s researchers must be especially diligent in reviewing the completed surveys. If you are using a financial incentive to drive survey completions, know there are bad actors out there looking to cash in.
Dig deeper: How to augment market research and glean customer insights with AI
More bot bad news
More and more people are using AI assistants to read and respond to emails. As a result, it is impacting your campaign success rates.
We just switched email platforms. Our company newsletter was the first item sent, and its performance dropped significantly. Open and click-through rates were half of what they had historically been. The reason? The new platform can filter out bot/agent responses.
For the most part, marketers have focused on AI’s upside, especially generative AI. What’s often overlooked is its impact on results. As I just illustrated, AI bots disrupt our marketing research efforts and AI assistants distort email response rates. Expect more disruption as AI agents become better at understanding workflows.
AI is turning out to be a double-edged sword. Last year’s focus was mainly on application and production. This year, we will need to make the time to start considering the impact it will have on our efforts. Or, maybe just program your bot to figure it out.
The post How to protect your marketing survey against AI bot attacks appeared first on MarTech.