When our client needed to recruit mental health professionals for a pilot study exploring attitudes towards AI, the challenge was not simply finding people with the right job titles.
The research required clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, therapists, mental health nurses and sex therapists, but professional experience was only one part of the brief. Participants also needed to represent a broad spectrum of AI knowledge, engagement and optimism, from those already using AI regularly to those who remained cautious about its role in healthcare and society.
Recruiting across such a varied group of mental health professions was already a detailed brief, particularly for some of the more specialist roles.
However, the most significant challenge emerged during screening. Mental health professionals were generally more familiar with and engaged in AI than the study required, meaning participants with lower levels of AI knowledge, interaction and optimism were much harder to find.
The team was therefore not only recruiting by profession and experience, but balancing the sample according to several attitudinal measures, including:
A strong sample needed to include genuine differences of opinion, rather than a group of professionals who all viewed AI through a broadly similar lens.
Acumen combined several recruitment methods, including its in-house database, targeted social media activity and detailed desk research.
As the early responses began to reveal a strong concentration of AI-engaged professionals, the recruitment strategy was adapted. Rather than continuing to source from the same channels and hoping for different results, the team refined its targeting to reach professional groups more likely to provide the underrepresented perspectives.
This included focusing outreach on older professionals and exploring more rural practices. The age-based targeting proved particularly effective, helping the team identify participants with the more cautious and less AI-engaged viewpoints needed to balance the pilot cohort.
Throughout the project, recruitment was continuously reviewed against the study’s attitudinal requirements, allowing the team to adjust sourcing activity as patterns emerged.
Within a two-and-a-half-week recruitment window, Acumen delivered a pilot sample that reflected the required mix of mental health professions and attitudes towards AI.
The client was pleased with the quality and balance of the participants recruited and subsequently commissioned Acumen to support the main study, expanding the project to 150 participants across the UK, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The larger study required the team to scale the approach considerably while continuing to manage the same complex balance of professional roles, geographical representation and AI attitudes.
For research exploring a rapidly developing subject such as AI, demographic diversity alone is not enough. If participants share similar levels of awareness, confidence or enthusiasm, the findings risk reflecting only a narrow section of the intended audience.
By treating attitudes as a core recruitment requirement rather than an additional screening detail, Acumen helped ensure the research could capture a more meaningful range of professional perspectives.
The project demonstrates how responsive sourcing, careful screening and a willingness to rethink the recruitment strategy can turn a difficult pilot brief into a scalable national study.
