What We’re Seeing with AI Moderated Qual: A Conversation with Rebecca Strangio

^{AI-moderated qualitative research is quickly becoming a go-to method for teams who want to gather in-depth feedback - faster and at a lower cost. To get an inside look at how this is playing out in the field, we sat down with Rebecca Strangio, a Client Solutions Manager at Emporia who specializes in qualitative research, to hear how our clients are using AI to scale their qual.}

What exactly is AI‑moderated qual?

“Basically, it's qualitative research where the moderator is an AI instead of a human,” Rebecca explains. “That could be a bot asking questions in a chat or a video-based AI interview. Participants go through it on their own time, and the system can follow up, probe, and capture those open-ended insights automatically.”

This structure allows projects to move quickly - often wrapping up within a few days - and allows researchers to hear from far more participants than they could in a traditional focus group or IDI.

What are the biggest advantages?

“The scale,” she says. “You can interview 100 people in the span of a day and get results back right away. You’re getting qualitative depth, but on a quant timeline.”

Cost is another factor. Compared to traditional qual, Rebecca notes that AI‑moderated studies can be 50–75% cheaper, without compromising on data quality.

At Emporia, the demand reflects that.“We’ve already seen a 300% increase in these projects compared to all of last year — and we’re only halfway through.”

How do respondents feel about being interviewed by AI?

Surprisingly positive, according to Rebecca. “It’s kind of gamifying the experience overall. People can complete the activity on their schedule, and we get a ton of unprompted feedback from folks just genuinely enjoying it.”

She adds that AI interviews have worked well across different types of respondents - from frontline professionals to business decision-makers.

Where is client adoption today?

“Researchers and insights teams are usually the first ones on board,” Rebecca says. “Other stakeholders might be more cautious, but once they see how fast the results come in - and the quality of what they get - it clicks.”

She’s also excited about where the tech is headed. “It would be cool to have an AI moderator with a face - like an avatar on screen - just to make it feel more natural. I think things are moving in that direction.”

How does Emporia support these studies?

While the AI handles the interviews, Emporia supports a critical part of the workload: finding and vetting the right B2B participants. Rebecca’s team handles:

• Recruitment across verified, professional audiences, from policy influencers to IT teams.
• Screening and scheduling, especially for tight timelines.
• Project setup and management across most major platforms.

“Whatever your needs are, we can accommodate,” she says. “Our goal is to make it easy for clients to run these studies without getting bogged down in the process.”