Outset

Outset is an all-in-one AI-moderated research platform that spans the entire research lifecycle: guide setup, participant recruitment, AI-moderated interviews, instant synthesis and analysis, and stakeholder share-out. It claims to be the only AI-moderated research that 'listens, sees, and understands,' bridging the gap between what consumers say and what they do. The AI moderator conducts hundreds of interviews simultaneously via video, voice, or text, in 40+ languages, and dynamically probes based on audio and visual cues to reveal the 'why' behind answers. Workflows start with automated guide setup, where AI builds an interview guide from research goals, including qualitative and quantitative questions, advanced probing guidelines, and intelligent skipping logic. Outset's recently launched Visual Intelligence suite adds digital intelligence (monitoring participant screens during usability studies to capture clicks, hovers, and friction), emotional intelligence (reading facial expressions and tone changes in real time), and physical intelligence (analyzing real-world interactions such as shopalongs, unboxing, and in-home tests). The platform includes AI-driven synthesis with themes, powerful quotes, auto-tagged transcripts, highlight reels, custom reports, chat-with-your-data exploration, and PowerPoint export; recruitment via 25+ native panel integrations (Prolific, User Interviews, and others), shareable links, or synthetic AI users; automatic fraud detection with 99%+ accuracy and tagging of incomplete answers; and enterprise security with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 42001 certification, GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA compliance, Azure infrastructure, data-segregated workspaces, SSO, white-labeling, and data never used to train external models. For sharing and analysis, teams get shareable report links, full interview playback, the ability to upload researcher-led interviews for analysis, and integration with Dovetail for broader qualitative workflows. Enterprise workspaces add observer seats, team collaboration, custom interviewer branding, and white-labeling so agencies can present interviews as their own product. Outset reports 500K+ hours of interviews conducted, 10K+ studies run, and 1.1B+ possible participants from 85+ countries, with customers citing faster, deeper research and even 1/20 the cost of parallel manual studies.