ChatGPT in Thematic Analysis: Can AI become a research assistant in qualitative research?

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 heralded a new era in various professional fields, yet its application in qualitative data analysis (QDA) remains underdeveloped. This article presents a researcher-driven AI-assisted qualitative data analysis (RDAQDA) through the application of ChatGPT (GPT-4 model) to thematic analysis. By employing an adapted version of King et al.’s (2018) Template Analysis, this article aims to assess how ChatGPT can help with QDA in a full analytical process using a sample interview dataset provided by Lumivero. My study includes applying ChatGPT in four stages: data familiarization; preliminary coding; template formation and finalization; and theme development. Findings reveal GPT-4’s capacity for grasping the data and generating codes, subcodes, clusters, and themes, along with its learning and adapting capabilities. However, the current model of ChatGPT has some key limitations in terms of effectively handling detailed analysis of large databases and producing consistent results, as well as the need to move across workspaces and the lack of relevant training data for QDA purposes.