AI is ready to start asking questions. In a recent session hosted by Insight Platforms (click here to watch now), Dana Cassady, VP of Business Insight at Recollective, took us on a deep dive into the platform’s newest innovation—Conversational AI—took center stage. This new task type is already transforming how researchers engage participants and gather insight, bringing structure, flexibility and efficiency to qualitative studies.
Whether you’re just starting out or running complex, multi-phase research, the conversational task offers a new way to listen, learn and lead.
Meet Your New Research Assistant: Recollective’s Conversational AI
The Conversational AI task allows participants to take part in dynamic, live-feeling exchanges with an AI moderator—while researchers review asynchronously. It simulates real-time conversation, generating thoughtful, guided dialogue that feels natural to participants and offers high-quality data to researchers.
Fully integrated within Recollective, this task type complements all other activities and can be personalized, layered and deployed across any study design.
Structured Objectives That Shape Smarter Conversations
The strength of the conversational task lies in its adaptability. Researchers define their conversation objectives, setting parameters for:
- Structure (open or linear)
- Focus (broad or deep)
- Intent (descriptive or exploratory)
- Style (direct or indirect questioning)
- Timeframe (past, present or future)
- Tone (neutral or familiar)
These elements ensure the AI moderator mirrors your research goals, but they also give you room to adapt the tone and approach to your project's subject matter and stage. For instance, broad exploratory conversations can support early discovery phases, while more focused, decisive dialogue might be better suited toward the end of a study when refining direction or validating concepts.
This flexibility gives you more control over the conversation, making it easier for participants to engage meaningfully.
Personalize Conversations With Response Piping
With response piping, you can reference earlier participant responses directly within the AI conversation. It’s a simple but powerful way to create personalized interactions that stay grounded in each participant’s unique journey.
In one example, participants completed a sort and rank activity about recent and planned home furniture purchases. Later, the AI asked about their intent to buy from the same retailer—automatically pulling in prior answers. This personalized setup led to deeper insights into brand loyalty, budget considerations and decision confidence, all without a human moderator having to track and follow up.
Piping is especially useful to validate or expand on quick responses that could benefit from elaboration.
Coach Your AI Like a Great Moderator
Rather than requiring researchers to name or know specific creative techniques, Recollective’s conversational AI gives you the ability to coach your AI moderator just like you would a junior colleague.
The AI can be guided to:
- Probe only when participants express strong emotions (Threshold Triggers)
- Start with a single word or simple reaction, then ask for elaboration (Signal Then Story)
- Follow up on general claims with real examples (Evidence Gates)
These are the same techniques seasoned moderators use to guide pacing, shift focus and prompt self-reflection—and now they can be built into your study design with clarity and consistency. You don’t need to script every move. Instead, you can describe what you’re looking for and the AI will carry out those intentions across every participant interaction.
Think of it as setting the tone and direction, then letting the AI execute with precision.
Conversations That Fuel Analysis and Synthesis
Every AI-led conversation includes:
- A full transcript
- An AI-generated summary aligned with your objectives
- Seamless indexing within Ask AI, enabling you to explore responses across your study—or across your entire site
This makes it easy to surface themes, pull supporting quotes and synthesize insight without combing through raw text. It’s analysis that works with you, not against your time.
From Simple Starts to Sophisticated Dialogue
The conversational task is as powerful as you need it to be. Newer researchers can start with a clear objective and let the AI take it from there. For experienced researchers, the task offers space to shape conversations with nuance, intent and strategic flow—replicating the best of live moderation without the time demand.
The result? Higher participant engagement, more response consistency and greater confidence in your findings.
Try It in Your Next Study
Whether you're designing a new study or expanding an existing one, Recollective’s conversational task is ready to support you. It’s human-centered, scalable and built to help you get the most from every participant.
Explore the task within your Recollective site or reach out to our team for guidance on best practices.
Let your next conversation start here.
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