AI interviews vs surveys: when to use which.
A survey reaches many people with fixed questions. An interview goes deep with a few. An AI voice interview holds a real conversation with every person, so you get interview depth across a survey-sized group.
| Compared on | Online survey | Interviews run by a person | AI voice interviews (Discover) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reach | Hundreds of people or more | Usually a handful | Everyone you invite, dozens at the same time |
| Questions | Fixed, the same for everyone | Adapt to each person | Follow your guide and adapt to each person |
| Answers | Short, often a tick-box | Reasons and stories | Reasons and stories |
| Scheduling | None | A calendar slot per person | None, each person picks their time |
| Analysis | Counts and charts | Transcripts to read and code by hand | Themes and quotes, traced to who said them |
| Best for | Measuring how many people think something | Conversations that need a human in the room | Understanding why, across a whole group |
When a survey is still the right tool
When you need a precise count: a satisfaction score you track every quarter, or a vote between fixed options. Surveys are cheap per response and easy to compare over time.
When to keep a person in the room
When the conversation is the relationship: a sponsor meeting, a difficult negotiation, or a moment that needs a human. Discover reaches the voices you cannot sit with. It does not replace the ones you should.
When to use an AI interview
When you need to understand why, from more people than you could interview yourself: discovery for a new engagement, a programme that touches many teams, or customers whose reasons you cannot see in the data.
Using them together
A common pattern is to run a short survey to find where opinion splits, then use AI interviews to hear the reasons from the people on each side.