Optimal launches AI-moderated surveys for deeper feedback

Optimal has launched AI-moderated Surveys, a new feature that adds spoken responses and automated follow-up questions to its research platform.

The Wellington-based user research company says the tool is designed to help teams gather more detailed qualitative feedback without a human moderator in every session. Participants answer survey questions aloud rather than by typing, and the system prompts them again if responses are too short or drift off topic.

Teams can adjust how actively the system asks follow-up questions, allowing researchers to set the depth and direction of a study. The aim is to combine the scale of surveys with some of the depth usually associated with moderated interviews.

Optimal is used by product, design, and research teams in more than 45 countries. Its customers include Netflix, Google, LEGO, Apple, Amazon, Uber, and Tesla. More than 1.2 million participants completed studies on the platform over the past year.

The launch comes as more user research work shifts beyond specialist research teams to product managers, designers, content strategists, and marketers. That change has increased demand for tools that non-specialists can run while still producing findings that can withstand scrutiny.

Alex Burke, Chief Executive Officer of Optimal, said the company has seen unusually rapid change in the sector.

"Optimal has been working with UX for 18 years, and the last six months have seen the fastest rate of change we've witnessed in the industry," Burke said.

He linked that shift both to the spread of artificial intelligence and to changes in how organisations organise research work.

"Of course, AI is changing technology across all industries. But Optimal has also seen a shift in how organisations run user research, with product managers, designers, content strategists, and marketers increasingly responsible for research that was once owned by dedicated UX teams," Burke said.

Research shift

Founded nearly two decades ago, Optimal began by building digital tools for card sorting and tree testing, methods used to assess information architecture and navigation. The company now offers products spanning a broader range of research tasks, including surveys, prototype testing, interviews, qualitative analysis, and participant recruitment.

Its latest launch reflects a wider effort to address growing research backlogs as product and design teams face pressure to make decisions more quickly. Rather than replacing the research process altogether, Optimal argues for tools that preserve method while reducing the time and specialist effort needed to run studies.

That position is central to how Burke described the new product.

"Ultimately, the direction of UX research is clear: more teams need faster ways to get to meaningful user input, and they still need the rigour that makes findings defensible. AI-moderated Surveys is just one way we are responding to industry changes," Burke said.

AI roadmap

Optimal also outlined further artificial intelligence work in its product pipeline. The next planned feature is an AI Interviewer that will adapt in real time based on study context, discussion guides, and research goals.

The tool is also expected to support automated themes, insights, citations, transcripts, and highlight reels. The aim is to reduce the time teams spend processing research outputs and increase the time spent acting on findings.

Optimal said its growth shows New Zealand software companies can build products with an international customer base by focusing on practical user problems.

"Optimal is demonstrating that New Zealand companies can build globally relevant products when they stay close to real user problems," Burke said.

"We started by digitising methods that were hard to run at scale. The work now is helping teams turn more inputs into clearer decisions," Burke said.