AI conversations win for almost every customer research job in 2026 — except one: known-question quantitative reporting at fixed sample sizes (think NPS tracking, demographic segmentation, brand-tracker waves), where surveys still win on cost, speed of analysis, and statistical comparability.

The survey is a legacy data structure from 1932. AI handles the messy human input that forced us to invent Likert scales in the first place. Here's why conversations win.