The platform conducts customer interviews using a voice AI. It works by designing the interview based on a team’s description of what it wants to learn.

The AI conducts each conversation and asks follow-up questions based on the person’s answers, then groups the responses into themes and links each finding to the quotes behind it.

The company is making the tool more widely available after an initial three-month beta period, during which it conducted interviews for 27 organisations, including hotels and multinational brands. 

Underheard says the approach means organisations can collect qualitative feedback from more people than a research team could reach on its own.

Underheard is backed by SFF Studio, the venture studio arm of Swiss Founders Fund.

"Some companies now let AI guess what their customers would say. We'd rather ask them," said Navid Mani, co-founder and CEO of Underheard. "Talking to people has always been the best way to understand them, but it never scaled. Asking a million people should be as easy as asking one."