O'Connor Shanna K, Miller Erin E, Zweifel Alyssa R, Schievelbein Danielle M, Parmar Anjali R, Amell James W
South Dakota State University, Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, 2400 S Minnesota Ave Suite 101, Sioux Falls, SD 57105, United States of America.
South Dakota State University, Department of Allied and Population Health, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, 2400 S Minnesota Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57105, United States of America.
Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2025 Oct;17(10):102418. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2025.102418. Epub 2025 Jun 19.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a promising tool to support qualitative data analysis, yet its role in faculty-led studies that incorporate student researchers remains under investigation. This study examined differences in inductive thematic analysis generated by student and faculty researchers using AI compared to traditional faculty-led coding.
Three qualitative datasets were analyzed using OpenAI's ChatGPT by faculty and student researchers.
Findings showed AI-assisted analyses identified most themes accurately, though faculty-generated AI results aligned more closely with expert-reviewed themes than student-generated AI results.
AI may be a valuable tool to enhance efficiency particularly in initial evaluation of qualitative data.
