With the Consumer Research Award, Marketagent and the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt aim to encourage young researchers to investigate current societal issues using innovative methods, thereby providing new impetus for science and practice.
This year, third place went to Thomas Kalischko and Michael Hollaus for their study "Trust the Answer – Trust in AI Search Results and Online Purchasing Decisions." Their work examines which characteristics of generative AI answers create trust and how this trust influences online purchasing decisions.
Second place was awarded to Karolina Suder from öbv – Austrian Federal Publishing House for her study "AI in Everyday School Life – Threat or Supportive Partner?" This work explores how Austrian teachers perceive the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom.
First place went to Tobias Sattler and Maximilian Neudörfer for their study "From Dr. Google to Dr. GPT? – AI, Cyberchondria, and Health Anxiety." They want to investigate the impact of AI-supported self-diagnosis tools on health anxieties in the Austrian population.
The award-winning research designs will now be implemented in practice in collaboration with the research professionals at Marketagent. Thomas Schwabl, Marketagent founder and CEO, sees the award-winning projects as a strong signal for the future of research:
“Artificial intelligence is currently changing many areas of our daily lives: from information searches to preventative healthcare. The award-winning studies impressively demonstrate how important sound market and opinion research is for better understanding these developments and making their societal impacts visible at an early stage.”