AI interviews

An AI interview is a question block that holds a short conversation instead of a fixed question. You tell it what you want to learn. It asks an opening question, listens to each answer, asks follow-ups where an answer is thin, and stops once it has what you need.

Use it when you want the depth of a one-to-one interview from many people at once, for example why customers left, how students experienced a course, or what a new feature is missing.

Add an interview

• In the editor, type / on a new line and choose AI interview, or pick AI interview from the quick start options on an empty page.
• Or ask Surbee in chat to build an interview survey for you. Describe what you want to learn and who is answering, and it writes the brief and objectives.

An interview can sit on its own page or alongside ordinary questions, so you can ask a few fixed questions first and then hand over to the conversation.

Set it up

Click Interview setup on the block to open its settings. The summary line shows whether a brief is set, how many objectives there are, and the question limit.

Brief

Only the interviewer sees the brief. Respondents never do.

• What is this study for? The purpose in a sentence or two, for example "We want to understand why new users stop using the app in their first week." An interview needs this before it can run well.
• Background. The product, situation or anything you already know.
• Who is answering. The audience, for example "Small business owners in the UAE".
• Never ask about. Topics to stay away from, for example pricing or competitors.
• Guidelines. How to ask, what to dig into and how to handle sensitive topics, for example "Ask for specific examples. Be gentle around health topics."

What you want to learn

Add up to 8 objectives, each one thing you want to find out, such as "Why they stopped using it". Objectives are private.

Each objective can have a fallback question. It is asked word for word if the AI interviewer is unavailable, so the interview still collects answers. Write it as a complete question a respondent would understand.

Conversation

• Opening question. The first question, asked word for word, so the interview starts instantly.
• Interviewer tone. Warm, Neutral or Concise.
• Quick-pick answers. Lets the interviewer offer tap-to-answer choices when a question has a short set of likely answers. Respondents can always type their own answer instead.
• Closing message. What the interviewer says at the end. Leave it empty to let the interviewer write one.
• How respondents answer. Typed or Spoken. See Voice interviews for spoken conversations.
• Language. Match the respondent, or a fixed language: English, Arabic, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Chinese or Japanese.

Limits

• Most questions. The most questions in one interview, including the opening one. From 2 to 15, 8 by default.
• Follow-ups each. How many follow-ups one objective can get before the interviewer moves on. From 0 to 4, 2 by default.

How an interview ends

The interviewer stops when any of these happens:

• Every objective has been covered, or has had all the follow-ups it is allowed.
• The question limit is reached.
• The respondent says they are finished, for example "that's all" or "I'm done".
• The respondent gives two very short or off-topic answers in a row.
• 25 minutes have passed since the interview started.

When the interview is required, respondents finish it before they can move on to the next page.

Credits

Each interview costs 1 credit from the survey owner's account when a respondent starts it. Running it in Preview is free.

If the owner has no credits left, the interview still runs, but it asks your opening question and then the fallback questions word for word, without follow-ups. Keep fallback questions filled in and keep an eye on your balance while a study is live. See Credits.

Try it before you publish

Open Preview and answer the interview as a respondent would. Try a short answer to see a follow-up, and a long one to see the interviewer move on. In the editor itself the conversation does not run, and the block shows that it starts when the survey is live.

Reading the results

In Results, each interview appears as a transcript of every question and answer. The answers are included with your other written answers when Themes and Analysis group what people said, and when you export.

Cipher checks interview answers like other written answers, so a response with pasted or low-effort answers can be flagged.

Tips

• Keep objectives specific. "Why they cancelled" works better than "Their experience".
• Three to five objectives with a limit of 8 to 10 questions suits most studies of about five minutes.
• Use Never ask about for anything your ethics approval does not cover.
• Tell respondents in the block's description that it is a short conversation and they can answer in their own words.