Depth of Qualitative Research with the Sample Size of Quantitative Research: Launch of 'N1-AI for Virtual Product Mall' to Deeply and Effortlessly Hear Consumers' Voices

“Virtual Product Mall”... An unprecedented new product development platform where AI combines consumer needs with manufacturers' technical capabilities to propose unique products. From its initial launch in December 2025 to March 2026, it has been adopted by 26 companies (Sapporo Breweries, Lotte, Saishunkan Pharmaceutical, Marusan-Ai, etc.), and the satisfaction rate among adopting companies has reached 90% (according to our research via questionnaire to supported companies). Patented (Patent No. 7706630, July 3, 2025).

NTT DX Partner Corporation (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO Takashi Abe; hereinafter NTT DX Partner) will begin offering "N1-AI for Virtual Product Mall" in April 2026, a service that combines AI and human power to collect customer feedback deeply and effortlessly, quickly generating solid hypotheses for new product development.

With this service, an AI interviewer deeply explores the daily context behind consumers' worries and desires, making it possible to propose and verify product ideas on the spot.

1. Background of Service Provision [Limitations of conventional qualitative and quantitative research in new product development] Many corporate product development sites face the following challenges regarding market research: - Qualitative (interview) research takes time and money, so it cannot be conducted casually. - Even if time and money are spent, it does not necessarily lead to quality improvement. - Quantitative research can secure a sample size (N), but only yields superficial responses. - Even after conducting research, discussions often remain parallel, such as "So what?" and "Who will buy that?"

Conventionally, to solve these issues, it was necessary to spend several months step by step on a process: "Discovering insights through N1 interviews" -> "Developing product concepts" -> "Verifying concepts at venue surveys."

Aiming to "guarantee the quality of hypotheses (product concepts) without spending man-hours," NTT DX Partner has developed "N1-AI for Virtual Product Mall," which resolves this trade-off by combining AI and humans.

2. Features of the Service [Feature 1: Broadly understanding the actual living conditions and consumption behavior of consumers as a whole] AI systematically collects not just simple demographic information, but daily purchasing behavior, usage scenes, worries, and values. It accurately captures the holistic daily context in which the worries and desires of "who," "when," and "why buy" occur.

[Feature 2: AI automatically detects "shallow answers" and generates in-depth questions] If the AI judges that an answer is abstract or superficial, it automatically generates follow-up questions such as "Why did you feel that way?" and "What did you compare it with to feel that way?" It does not settle for shallow impressions, but digs deeper by changing the angle of comparison and questioning.

[Feature 3: Achieving both "N1 interviews (discovery)" and "concept surveys (verification)," which were conventionally separate processes, simultaneously in one session] Not only does it listen to consumers' worries, but the AI also generates and proposes "virtual product ideas" that solve those worries on the spot.