“NVivo, ATLAS.ti, or QDA Miner — which one do you need? And can AI really help code your data? Here’s a simple look at what’s changing in qualitative data analysis, and how to keep up.”
Things are changing fast in how researchers work with interviews and open-ended survey answers. A few years ago, going through a hundred interviews by hand and coding them one by one was just part of the job. Today, AI can give you a rough set of themes from the same data in minutes. That’s why so many people are suddenly talking about qualitative data analysis in Kenya — the basics haven’t changed, but the tools have gotten much faster.
What is qualitative data analysis?
Numbers tell you what happened. Qualitative data analysis tells you why. It’s how researchers take interviews, focus group notes, and open-ended survey answers, and turn them into clear themes and findings. It’s used a lot in research studies, public health work, NGO projects, and customer feedback across Kenya.
The main tools people are using
If you talk to researchers or M&E officers right now, three tools come up again and again:
NVivo — still the most common choice for NVivo training in Kenya, especially for university research and donor-funded projects. It can now suggest codes for you automatically, but you still need to check that they make sense.
ATLAS.ti — good when you want to show how different themes connect, not just list them. It has an easy visual layout, which helps when you’re explaining your findings to people who don’t want to read a long report.
QDA Miner — useful when your data has both numbers and words, like a survey with rating questions and open comments together.
There’s also MAXQDA, which is popular with teams that need to keep a clear record of every step, in case their work is reviewed or audited later.
What’s new: AI
The big change right now is AI-assisted qualitative data analysis. AI can now read through transcripts, group similar answers together, and suggest themes in a few minutes — work that used to take a research assistant several days.
But AI can’t replace your judgement. It doesn’t understand your research context the way you do, and it can miss cultural meaning. The themes it suggests still need a person to check them. The researchers who benefit most from AI are the ones who use it to save time on the boring first steps, so they have more time to think carefully about what the data actually means.
Why this matters for you
If you’re finishing a thesis, writing donor reports, or doing any kind of qualitative research in Nairobi, it’s no longer enough to know just one tool. The real skill is knowing how to mix careful manual coding with faster AI tools, without losing the quality of your findings.
Learn it properly
Our NVivo, ATLAS.ti, QDA Miner & Report Writing course teaches you all three tools hands-on, plus how to write a report that holds up. Find out more at sonekdataschool.com.