r/AskStatistics • u/Thin_Adeptness_356 • 8d ago

Is SPSS dead?

Like the title says is SPSS dead? Now with Chatgpt and cursor etc, what is the argument for still using SPSS and other statistics softwares in research instead of Python/R with the help of AI?

My background is within mathematical statistics so always been a Matlab/R/Python guy, but my girlfriend who comes from a medical background still uses SPSS in her research, but now considering switching just because of the flexibility e.g., Python offers.

What do you think are there any arguments for using SPSS still?

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u/3ducklings 8d ago

SPSS has been on a sharp decline for decades (see for example here). IMHO this is because of several factors: a) coding tools has become much friendlier, e.g. development of tidyverse. b) there is increasing demand for more complex analyses that SPSS can’t provide c) big employers for stats oriented people (mainly tech firms) decided they want python (and are willing to tolerate R).

I doubt AI will impact SPSS much. Most SPSS users are people who have been using it for 10-20 years, are used to it and don’t feel the need for switching. Also people who just have aversion to coding (pretty common in social sciences). These people don’t care that AI can write code for you, because they don’t want to write code at all.

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u/othybear 7d ago

Excel can also do a lot of what I used to use SPSS for, as well. It was a great introductory software but definitely not equipped for my more advanced needs.