Global STEM recruitment firm SThree released its annual "How the STEM world works: Navigating the New Era of AI and Trust" report. The report explores critical challenges and insights from the 2,500 STEM professionals surveyed on the evolving workforce dynamics in the AI era and how organisations can proactively combat such changes.
In the report's discovery phase, Signal AI’s AI-powered analytics helped Harriet Midwood, a researcher at SThree, augment and strengthen her research approach, providing more profound, nuanced insights into the evolving STEM landscape. The new way of approaching previously contested and saturated topics helped unlock bolder and more unique findings, ultimately earning the campaign more press coverage in top-tier media sources, such as the World Economic Forum, MSN, Fortune, The Times, and TechRadar.
“The Signal AI data we were collating and using for the discovery phase of the report was much richer—this was evident in the hypotheses and has been proven with the report's results.” - Harriet Midwood, Researcher, SThree
Challenge: Forming hypotheses with AI-powered research
“Our goal at SThree is to figure out what [our audiences’] problems are and how to solve them. The better data we have, the better we can solve them.” - Harriet Midwood.
This annual report is a vital thought leadership pillar for SThree. Midwood wanted to approach the analysis for the third edition of the annual report in a new, more structured way. The team was looking to:
- Create content that provides genuine value to target audiences
- Identify emerging trends in conversations around STEM workforce technologies
- Develop data-backed hypotheses and proof points
- Differentiate with unique insights in an increasingly competitive market
Solutions: Unlocking winning topics that matter most
Signal AI’s innovative AI-powered features help with topic discovery, identifying emerging trends, peer analysis, and topic associations. Midwood leveraged these features to develop groundbreaking research on workforce dynamics in the AI era. Signal AI helped to:
- Set up robust Web App searches for horizon scanning to identify emerging topics, which were then cross-referenced with SEO analysis.
- Conduct comprehensive Topic Analysis to validate hypotheses through AI-powered insights.
- Analyzed Contested Topics for peer analysis to examine winning topics for SThree, content gaps, and whitespace opportunities.
- Report on the success of the report campaign post-launch.
Midwood’s goal of horizon scanning across these broader topics, such as ‘aging workforce,’ ‘STEM work in social environments,’ and ‘AI and emerging technologies,’ would be challenging and time-consuming with keyword-based solutions using Boolean. Signal AI’s entity-based search uses discriminative AI models to detect topics, people, organizations, locations, and more.
As a “clean air” picture of the competitive landscape, Midwood wanted to quickly understand which topics were extensively covered by competitors, where SThree was winning, and which topics they wanted to be more associated with.
Midwood and the SThree team used Signal AI’s Topic Analysis in the early planning stage of the research. Topic Analysis helped scan market conversations and investigate contested topics in the ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘technology’ landscapes to help the team develop stronger research hypotheses and survey questions.
For example, ‘Digital Resiliency’ was a topic with which SThree was already highly associated. The user interviews emphasized this topic, forming the foundation for the first hypothesis of the report—that leaders who resist adopting AI and tech are impacting business growth.
In another example, the SThree team uncovered a whitespace opportunity to approach ‘Digital Literacy’ in a new way. Many other stories covered workplace transformation and productivity in the age of AI from the vantage point of the employee’s responsibility and reported productivity loss.
Instead, SThree approached digital literacy from the perspective of leadership responsibilities, focusing on the conversations about skills needed in this new era of AI. Midwood’s research found that STEM employees lost 6 hours weekly due to limited access to advanced AI tools. This topic was a whitespace opportunity to flip the script, launching the report with the bold finding that 57% of STEM professionals say CEOs are digitally illiterate. With Topic Analysis, Midwood proved a hypothesis and found similar qualitative results via the survey interviews.
Timo Lehne, CEO of SThree, said in a press release:
“Our research reveals that many STEM workers have a strong desire to use AI but feel held back by their organisations, leading to productivity losses. To bridge this gap, leaders must understand and support their workforce, focusing on soft skills and creating a trusting work environment. This approach not only boosts productivity but also enhances employee wellbeing and can help drive business success."
Results & Impact: Market research supported overall business strategy
- Positioned SThree as a thought leader in STEM workforce trends. The report was downloaded 383 times at time of writing and earned more than 60 press mentions.
- Identified building digital literacy within organizations as a key emerging theme and a core business objective for SThree, presented to senior leadership.
- Earned impactful press coverage and expanded SThree’s reach: The key messaging was present in 100% of press coverage achieved to date. The campaign has earned 22.2m impressions overall.
After surveying 2,500 STEM professionals on their research hypotheses, the SThree team found that while 49% of employees believe their company lags in AI adoption, 60% of STEM employees are eager to work with the latest AI tools. 76% of employees who work for employers they trust are motivated to exceed expectations.
As part of her process, Midwood held empathy mapping workshops with senior leadership to relay the challenges, desires, and influences of their core audiences, which were proven through her Signal AI market research. One of the report's core topics, digital literacy, has further supported SThree’s core business objective of supporting clients through digital transformation by having the right skills and strategic workforce planning strategy in place.