Outset

Qualitative Depth at the Speed and Scale of a Survey

Outset is an AI-moderated research platform that helps insights, UX and product teams understand people in their own words, at a pace that keeps up with the business. Our AI moderator conducts hundreds of in-depth interviews at the same time over video, voice or text, probing on every answer the way a skilled moderator would. Studies that once took weeks of scheduling, fieldwork and analysis are completed in days, often overnight.

Headquartered in San Francisco and backed by Radical Ventures, M12 (Microsoft's venture fund), 8VC and Y Combinator, Outset has powered more than 10,000 studies and 500,000 hours of interviews for brands including Microsoft, Nestlé, Indeed, HubSpot, Coinbase, Glassdoor, WeightWatchers and Away, as well as research partners such as Ipsos.

An AI Moderator That Listens and Probes

You set the objectives; Outset handles the conversation. Our AI drafts a discussion guide from your research goals, complete with probing guidelines and skip logic, then adapts its follow-up questions in real time based on what each participant says. With visual intelligence, the moderator also responds to what participants show and do, from emotional cues on camera to how they navigate a website or prototype on screen.

Methods for Every Stage of the Product and Brand Lifecycle

Outset supports in-depth interviews, concept and creative testing, usability testing and prototype walkthroughs, brand and positioning research, segmentation and persona development, diary studies and in-home testing. Teams use it to close the say-do gap, run always-on customer listening and take on studies that used to be impractical because of budget, timeline or sample size.

Global Reach in 40+ Languages

Recruit from more than one billion potential participants across 85+ countries, or share an interview link with your own customers, employees or panel. Interviews run natively in 40+ languages, and results are synthesized together so a multi-market study reads as one. Outset also works with recruitment partners including Prolific, User Interviews and Rally.

From Conversations to Decisions, Fast

Outset's analysis engine turns hundreds of transcripts into summaries, themes, verbatim quotes and quantified findings, with highlight reels, AI-generated reports and PowerPoint decks ready for stakeholders. Built-in fraud detection and low-quality response screening protect data quality. Outset Digital Twins take research further, letting teams interview or chat with simulated versions of their target audience, with confidence scores and source tracing on every answer.

Proven Results

Microsoft used Outset to increase Copilot retention by 5%. Indeed got $80,000 worth of research for $4,000, matching the rigor of a traditional study at 1/20 of the cost. HubSpot ran more than 100 interviews in days to shape its AI roadmap, Away's one-person research team completed 75 interviews overnight, and Hipcamp did three months of research in a week.

Enterprise-Grade Security

Outset is SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 42001 certified, GDPR and HIPAA compliant and hosted on Microsoft Azure. Agencies can white-label the platform for their own clients, and an MCP integration lets teams launch studies, analyze results and query Digital Twins from the AI tools they already use.

See what AI-moderated research can do for your team at outset.ai.