How AI user interviews work, and why you can trust the findings
See how heari handles every step—from study design and interviews to analysis and reporting—while keeping your team in control and participant data protected.
Research design: start from the business question
The AI research assistant turns your business question into research goals, study questions, and an interview guide. The guide defines must-ask questions, follow-up prompts, and stopping criteria. Your team reviews and edits it before launch.
Interviews: how the AI follows up
The AI works through the interview guide and probes vague answers like "it was fine" or "not fun" with follow-up questions about the specific situation, steps, and reasons. Once a topic is clear, it asks the participant to confirm a quick summary before moving on. Participants can type or speak, and hundreds of interviews can run at once.
Quality control: filtering out low-quality responses
Careless, repetitive or off-topic answers get flagged, and the researcher decides whether to exclude them. Excluded interviews don't count toward your quota.
Analysis and reporting: quotes behind every finding
The insight report groups findings by theme. Each finding shows how many participants mentioned it, complete with linked quotes, participant IDs, and counterexamples. Researchers can accept, edit, or reject every finding.
Validation: closing the loop with behavior data
Connect heari to ThinkingAI Agentic Engine to target participants by behavior and bring behavioral context into every interview. After shipping a change, check your behavior data to see if the findings hold up.
Participants and data
Before starting, participants see who is running the study, why, and how long it takes. All quotes are anonymized with personal details removed, and participants can skip questions or exit anytime.
Read the participant noticeAI interviews vs. surveys and traditional interviews
FAQ
How is an AI interview different from a survey?
Survey questions are fixed, so you can't follow up when an answer is vague. An AI interview keeps asking about the specific situation, step and reason, so you get quotes that explain why.
Can AI interviews replace user researchers?
Not entirely. AI moderates the interviews and organizes the data. Researchers and product teams still define the research questions, review the interview guide, evaluate the findings, and decide what to do next.
How many participants does a study need?
It depends on your research question. To explore motivations, a dozen to a few dozen interviews usually surface the main themes. To compare user segments, interview a set from each group.
Can participants answer by voice?
Yes. Participants choose whether to type or answer by voice.
How do I trace a finding back to its source?
Every finding links to supporting quotes, tagged with the participant ID and timestamp. Click any quote to read the full exchange around it.
Can AI agents use heari directly?
Yes. heari supports MCP and a CLI, so AI agents can create studies, check progress and read reports.
Run the full workflow on a real study
From study design and live AI interviews to the insight report, we'll help you run a pilot study in heari.
