AI Interview:
An in-depth guide to AI-powered interviews in research
AI interviews are a big leap forward in the research space, offering a powerful method to achieve both depth and scale at the same time.
By Max de Jong · Last update: 23rd of April 2025
Use an AI interview in different situations and for different goals
User feedback
Customer interviews
Instead of surveys
User tests
Insight sessions
User feedback
Customer interviews
Instead of surveys
User tests
Insight sessions
How can AI interviews help you in your research set up? Well, we know how! In this blog we will explain what AI interviews are, how it works, what benefits it has, when it's best to use, or when you better move back to human-led interviews. We have written this article with input from subject matter experts, our own research, our own experience building an AI interview platform and using an AI interview in research. Parts of this article are (re-)written by AI to improve the quality of the article.
Read this article if you would like to know more about AI interviews in research set ups and how it can enrich your research with real human respondents.
Introduction to AI Interviews
In recent years, AI interviews have emerged as a breakthrough tool in research and data collection. The rise of generative AI enabled software that can conduct interviews at scale.
Unlike traditional methods, AI interviews use advanced technology like Artificial Intelligencealgorithms and machine learning to generate questions, analyze responses, and follow up contextually with real respondents.
By automating interviews, AI can save time and reduce common human bias and inconsistency. Understanding AI interviews is increasingly important for modern research teams.
Create an AI interview in three simple steps
Create an AI interview
An AI interview assistant will perform your AI interview
Share the AI interview link
Share the AI interview link with your users
What are AI Interviews?
AI interviews are described in different ways. If we combine definitions from multiple sources, such as Felix Chora & Ingar Haaland or Harvard Business Reviewwe could define AI interviews as follows:
AI interviews use artificial intelligence to conduct interviews and can respond contextually to a respondent's answer.
In simpler terms, AI interviews are interviews where software asks questions and interprets answers using AI techniques.
With this shared understanding, the next question is: what is the primary goal of AI interviews?
The primary goal of using AI Interviews
The main goal is to make interviewing easier and faster while improving consistency. AI can run many interviews in parallel and help reduce human error.
We can see it as the middle ground between qualitative (detailed and descriptive) and quantitative research (numbers and statistics). The benefit of qualitative research is that you can explore deeper motivations, though usually with smaller samples.
In contrast to quantitative research (like surveys) which often has larger samples but less depth, AI interviews can combine both depth and scale through adaptive follow-up.
AI interviews can ask a structured base set of questions, analyze responses in real time, and probe deeper with relevant follow-ups.
How do AI interviews work?
To understand AI interviews, it helps to understand AI and generative AI fundamentals. Below is a concise explanation.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence enables machines to simulate human-like reasoning and problem-solving across many tasks. (IBM 2024, 'What is AI?'). In simple terms, AI continuously estimates probabilities of likely outcomes.
How does artificial intelligence work?
AI often predicts outcomes based on patterns in past data: what is the chance Z happens given conditions X and Y? (read more in this AI with Naive Bayes example). This basic idea scales to much more complex variables and conditions.
What is Generative AI and what does it have to do with AI interviews?
Generative AI predicts likely next tokens based on patterns from large datasets. With sufficient context, it can generate coherent responses and adapt question flow.
So, how do AI interviews work?
AI interview systems ask questions in text or voice, analyze responses in real time, and adapt follow-ups to relevant topics. This creates a more consistent and scalable interview process.
The Benefits of AI-Powered Interviews
AI-powered interviews offer many benefits for both researchers and respondents. Here is a short summary:
Efficiency & time saving
AI interviews automate moderation, allowing teams to spend more time on interpretation and insight generation.
Scalability
Human interview programs are often limited to small sample sizes, commonly between 10 and 20 (depends on the number of persona's)because of scheduling and analysis effort. AI interviews can scale to many more participants.
Cross cultural and multi-language
AI interviews can run in multiple languages and support cross-cultural research globally.
Consistency & objectivity (less bias)
AI can keep questioning style consistent across respondents, reducing interviewer variation and supporting more objective comparisons.
Cost effectiveness
Automating moderation can reduce staffing and operational costs once the system is configured.
Advanced data analysis
AI interviews can support real-time analysis, pattern detection, and richer reporting.
Accessibility & convenience
AI interviews improve convenience with 24/7 availability, remote participation, and simplified scheduling.
Improved data quality
Standardized interview flow and automated processing can improve consistency and reduce manual data errors.
The benefits & challenges in one view
It is useful to evaluate whether AI interviews are the right fit for your use-case. They bring strong benefits but also tradeoffs.
Benefits
Efficiency & Time Saving
Scalability
Cross-Cultural and Multi-Language
Consistency & Objectivity
Cost effectiveness
Advanced data analysis
Accessibility & convenience
Improved Data Quality
Challenges
Lack of human touch and emotion
Technical issues
Limited flexibility to change during a conversation
Bias in algorithms
Privacy concerns
Resistance in adoption by respondents
Cost of implementation
Less respondent engagement during the interview
Set up an AI interview yourself
Curious to try it out yourself? Within a few minutes, you can integrate AI interviews into your own research. Follow the steps below to create an AI interview on our platform.
1. Request access on this page
Register for an account with Pitchwave. If you haven't requested access yet, do this first to ensure you receive credentials.
2. Sign in here
After registration, sign in with the credentials you received.
3. Create a project
After signing in, create a project to manage your AI interviews in a structured way.
4. Create an AI interview assistant
After creating a project, click "Create a new research" to create an AI interview assistant and configure key details.
5. Brand your AI interview assistant
Branding helps users recognize your brand and build trust. Upload your logo and select brand colors.
6. Share your interview link with real respondents
Once your AI interview is ready, share the link so respondents can start immediately.
7. Receive responses and insights in a few minutes
After respondents complete the interview, answers appear in your dashboard for analysis or export.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about the product and billing.
