A documentary-style human moment in a home interior

REAL PEOPLE. DEEP INTERVIEWS. INSTANTLY SEARCHABLE.

Human reality, on tap.

When it comes to understanding customers, there is no replacement for expertly conducted deep interviews with real people. But this is often slow, expensive and unrepresentative.

Dose of Reality is a constantly updated AI-searchable library of deep qualitative and ethnographic research. Ask a question in plain English. Uncover real, meaningful insight and see the footage for yourself, on the platform.

When it comes to understanding customers, there is no replacement for expertly conducted deep interviews with real people. But this is often slow, expensive and unrepresentative.

Book a demo

HOW IT WORKS

Human-led research. AI-powered access.

AI helps you access the reality. It does not invent it.

A subscription giving brands and agencies instant, AI-searchable access to thousands of hours of real people’s lives. Our roving reality reporters add new interviews, home visits and missions every week.

Deep reality

Expertly conducted ethnography, missions, and real deep interviews

Thousands of lives

Pooled into one ever-growing library - economies of scale no single project can match.

Instant access

Ask anything in plain English. Our AI answers with scenes of participants themselves

Think of it as a streaming library of real life, with an analyst built in.

WAYS TO WORK

Access. Shape. Commission.

Three ways to work with the content library

ACCESS

Search the content library

Search video, audio, photography and transcripts already in the library.

SHAPE

Influence what comes next

Help steer future homes, geographies, categories and brand focus to suit your ongoing needs.

COMMISSION

Set a specific brief

Commission ongoing bespoke research, scoped and fielded for your exact requirements.

A year’s subscription cheaper than a single qual project.

The people behind Dose of Reality

Real human understanding needs people who can sit with ambiguity, listen carefully, and turn what they find into evidence teams can act on. Dose of Reality was built to put both in one place.

James Addlestone

Co-founder

James has spent his career building products using data to understand customer behaviour. He started his career as a Data Scientist at Deloitte, and was most recently Head of Data Arts at Saatchi & Saatchi. At Dose he leads the product build and behavioural research, ensuring we are delivering human reality on tap with analytical rigour.

Data science

Customer Behaviour

Mark Hadfield

Co-founder

Mark is a qualitative researcher who has built his career getting closer to the people most insight work overlooks. Through Meet the 85%, he champions understanding the majority who live well outside the marketing bubble. At Dose he leads the in-person, ethnographic craft that makes our insight real rather than assumed.

Ethnographic research

Marketing Strategy

EARLY SIGNALS

What people are saying about Dose

Early conversations point to a clear appetite for searchable, reusable human evidence.

“What an amazing thing you guys have built. F***ing hell. It’s been so missing. Very, very good.”

Chief Strategy Officer

Large media agency

“Dose would add a lot of value to our clients immediately.”

Chief Strategy Officer

Creative consultancy

“I just think this is so good and it offers something that we simply don’t have in any other way. I want this tool. Give me this tool.”

Head of Client Services

Communications agency

“This will be a game changer for us.”

Insights & AI Product Manager

National broadcaster

Ready to dive into reality?

Join tens of others already on the platform.

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Frequently asked questions

How real people, deep qualitative research and AI help you get closer to the decisions that matter.

What is Dose of Reality?

Dose of Reality is an AI-searchable qualitative research platform built around conversations and footage from real people’s lives. It gives strategists, marketers and insight teams a way to explore people’s experiences, motivations and behaviour, then return to the original evidence. The aim is to make deep human understanding useful across more decisions, without starting a new research project for every question.

What is ethnographic research, and how is it different from quantitative research?

Ethnographic research explores people’s lives in context: their routines, surroundings, relationships and the gap between what they say and what they do. Quantitative research measures patterns using numerical data. Ethnography can reveal an unexpected reason behind a choice; a well-designed survey can then investigate how common that reason is. They offer different kinds of evidence and work well together.

Can qualitative research replace surveys and quantitative data?

Qualitative research is valuable for discovering motivations, language, tensions and new questions. Surveys, experiments and behavioural data help measure prevalence, compare groups and test outcomes. Start with the decision you need to make, then choose the evidence that fits. A revealing interview can inspire a promising idea without showing how many people will respond to it.

Can’t I just use synthetic research?

You can use synthetic research for initial ideas, but it predicts what people might say. It cannot tell you whether someone has actually had that experience. When you need to understand unfamiliar behaviour, emerging needs or the contradictions in people’s lives, you need real evidence. Dose uses AI to help you search and interpret research with real people, with footage you can check for yourself.

Read Confessions of a Quantaholic ↗

How does Dose of Reality use AI?

AI helps organise and search the research, making it easier to find relevant moments and explore themes across interviews. You can ask questions in everyday language and investigate the underlying material. AI-generated interpretations are a starting point for judgement: the original footage and conversation provide the evidence. Dose does not invent participants or present generated dialogue as a participant quote.

How is the qualitative research collected?

Dose combines researcher-led conversations and visits in people’s everyday environments with participant-captured activities and online interviews where appropriate. Different approaches reveal different things: a home visit can show someone’s surroundings, while an in-the-moment activity can capture an experience closer to when it happens. The method should suit the person, the topic and the question being explored.

Can I check the evidence behind an insight?

Yes. The platform connects interpretations to relevant research moments so you can review the footage and its context. Hearing someone’s words, watching their reaction and understanding the surrounding conversation helps you judge whether an interpretation is useful. A summary should help you find evidence, rather than become a substitute for examining it.

Is qualitative research statistically representative?

Qualitative research does not become statistically representative simply because the library grows. Its strength is depth, context and the range of experiences explored. Consider who is included, who is missing and whether the material fits your question. Use appropriately designed quantitative research when you need population estimates or to measure how widespread a finding is.

What can brands and agencies use Dose of Reality for?

Teams can use Dose to sharpen a creative brief, explore category behaviour, understand customer frustrations, find authentic language and develop new strategic hypotheses. It can also help explain a pattern seen in other data. The most useful starting point is a concrete decision or question, followed by a willingness to investigate evidence that challenges the initial assumption.

Can I explore new questions using existing interviews?

Yes, where the library contains relevant evidence. Deep conversations can cover several aspects of a person’s life, making them useful beyond a single original brief. The important check is whether participants actually discussed or demonstrated something relevant. If the evidence is missing, the answer should be further research, rather than a confident guess.

Can we commission research on a specific audience or topic?

Yes. Alongside access to the existing library, Dose offers commissioned research for questions that need new fieldwork. The audience, approach and scope are agreed around the brief. This is useful when existing material does not cover the people, experiences or subject you need to understand.

How do you make deep research available at scale?

Dose brings researcher-led interviews, home visits and participant activities into a shared library. AI makes relevant material easier to find, so teams can revisit the evidence with new questions. The aim is to make the depth of ethnographic research useful across more decisions, while keeping a clear line back to real people.

Explore our research approach ↗

Read about our research approach ↗

Comparing Dose of Reality and Conveo ↗