Live vs AI Moderation

If you choose moderated research, you can conduct your interviews using either an AI Moderator or a human moderator. The right choice depends on how much scale, consistency, and flexibility you need during the conversation.

AI Moderation

Choose AI Interview when you want to conduct structured, in-depth interviews across a larger number of participants without requiring a human moderator for every session.

AI moderation is useful when you:

• Need to scale interviews — Conduct more interviews without scheduling a human moderator for every participant.
• Want consistent moderation — Every participant is guided through the same research objectives and discussion structure.
• Need faster fieldwork — Participants can complete interviews without coordinating a live moderator's availability.
• Want consistent probing — Define the areas the AI Moderator should explore, so important topics are covered across interviews.
• Need to reach participants across different locations or time zones — Interviews can be completed without coordinating a shared schedule.
• Want to explore responses at scale — Collect richer qualitative responses from a larger number of participants than may be practical with live moderation.

Example:

You want to understand how 50 consumers choose a skincare product and what influences their decisions.

With a live moderator, each interview needs to be scheduled and conducted individually. With AI Interview, you can use the same discussion objectives and probing framework across the participant group, making it easier to scale the research.

Live Moderation

Choose Live Interviews when the conversation requires human judgement, rapport, or significant flexibility.

Live moderation is useful when:

• The topic is highly exploratory.
• The subject is sensitive or emotionally complex.
• Building rapport is important.
• The conversation may change direction significantly.
• The moderator needs to make judgement calls during the interview.
• The moderator needs to respond to subtle cues or context that may require human interpretation.

Example:

You are exploring a sensitive customer experience where participants may share personal or emotionally difficult experiences.

A human moderator can respond sensitively, adjust the conversation, and decide when and how to probe further.

Rule of thumb

Need to scale structured interviews with consistent probing? → AI Interview
Need human judgement, rapport, or highly flexible conversations? → Live Interviews