The AI Interview is a task type in Hubble's unmoderated studies. Through AI Interviews, you can set up an automated, conversational AI-moderated interview experience for participants. Instead of answering static questions, participants can interact with an AI that facilitates a dynamic, natural conversation based on the study context and specified topics.
This feature is designed to capture rich qualitative insights at scale by asking context-based follow-up questions, without the need for a live human moderator.
When to Use AI Interview
AI Interview is ideal for:
Exploratory research: uncovering participant attitudes, motivations, and pain points
Post-task reflection: gathering deeper context after a usability or prototype test
Focused deep dives: exploring a specific aspect of the user journey or workflow
Scalable qualitative interviews: running many interviews in parallel without additional moderator time
How It Works
Step 1. Add an AI Interview Task
In your unmoderated study, click + Add task to open the task list, then select AI interview.
Step 2. Specify the Interview Title
Type the topic into the Interview topic field. This tells the AI what the discussion will be about, and it also appears on the participant's screen during the interview. Write it as a clear, specific subject (for example, "Mobile App Feedback" rather than an internal code or label).
Step 3. Add Instructions for Participants (Optional)
Instructions for participants is an optional field where you can provide participants with context or tasks to complete before or during the interview. Whatever you enter here appears on the participant's screen alongside the interview topic.
Step 3.1. Insert a Link
You can embed a URL directly in the instructions text, which is useful when participants need to access an app, prototype, or website as part of the study.
- Select the word or phrase in the instructions text you want to link.
- Click the chain link icon in the toolbar.
- A URL input box appears. Enter the full URL.
- Click Add link.
The selected text will appear as a clickable hyperlink in the participant's view.
Step 4. Create a New Discussion Guide
The discussion guide gives the AI an outline for the conversation. Unlike a moderated interview, a fully developed script is not required. High-level direction is sufficient for the AI to generate relevant follow-up questions.
Click Create new discussion guide to open the guide editor.
Step 4.1. Select a Starting Point
A Select a starting point modal opens. You can write your own guide from scratch, or choose from one of the available templates. Each template is built around a different conversation structure, so clicking through them lets you preview how the questions are framed before selecting one.
Click a template to preview its questions on the right side of the modal, then click Apply to load it into the editor.
Note that the preview questions are examples. The AI will not follow them verbatim, but will use them as a guide to shape the direction of the conversation.
Step 4.2. Customize the Discussion Guide
After applying a template, the Edit discussion guide panel opens with the template's questions pre-loaded. Questions can be added, edited, or removed. To add a new question block, type ‘?’ followed by a space, or click the question block button in the toolbar. Follow-up prompts go underneath each question block.
Click X in the top-right corner to save and close the panel.
Step 5. Configure Additional Settings
Scroll down below the discussion guide to access the following options:
- Collect video feedback: When enabled, participants must share their webcam in addition to audio.
- Language: Sets the language of the AI interview. Defaults to English.
- AI voice model: Selects the voice the AI uses when speaking to participants. Selecting an option plays a voice sample.
- Enable AI voice: By default, the AI interacts via text chat. Enabling this option allows the AI to speak to participants while the transcript is displayed on screen.
- Push-to-Talk: Requires participants to press a button to speak. This prevents the microphone from capturing background noise when participants are not actively responding.
Step 6. Preview the Task Before Launch
Click Preview in the top-right corner to interact with the AI before the study goes live. You can test the discussion guide and review how the conversation flows based on your settings.
Best Practices
- Keep your topic focused: the AI performs best when given a clear, scoped subject. If the interview covers multiple unrelated topics, consider separating them into individual AI Interview tasks.
- Explore different starting points: each template is designed for a specific research goal. Reviewing the question preview for each template helps identify which structure best suits your study.
- Test before launching: preview the conversation to confirm the AI's style and flow meet your research needs.