Summarize a survey's open-ended responses into themes
A ready-to-use “Data & Analysis” AI prompt template, designed and tested with Claude. Replace the (bracketed) parts below with your own needs.
Prompt template
I ran a survey and got a pile of open-ended text responses, and I want to find what people are actually saying rather than reading each one until my eyes glaze over. The survey's topic and purpose: () The question I asked: (paste the question) Responses: (paste all open-ended responses, one per line is fine) Please: 1. Summarize these responses into a few main themes, each with an understandable name 2. Mark roughly what share each theme accounts for (use "most / some / few" — don't fake precise numbers) 3. Pick 1-2 most representative original responses as examples per theme 4. Point out 1-2 "nobody said but worth noting" signals, and give me one summary line I can report to the team.
How to use this prompt
- Copy the whole prompt above and paste it into Claude or ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini.
- Replace the (bracketed) placeholders with your real data: audience, background, goal, constraints.
- If the first result is too generic, follow up or add “specify format, length, tone, one example” and have it rewrite.
Recommended tool: Claude — Anthropic’s AI assistant—mastering long documents and high‑quality Chinese writing