Underheard Launches an AI Interviewer

Underheard, a Swiss startup that officially launched today as a spinoff from SFF Studio, the venture studio of Swiss Founders Fund, has released an artificial intelligence interviewer platform that conducts customer interviews for qualitative feedback at any hour and turns the answers into structured findings.

Underheard's AI interviewer uses voice AI specifically for qualitative research. It combines conversational psychology with established interviewing methods to explore people’s experiences, motivations, and needs.

"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, in a statement. "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."

Underheard applies AI to the interview itself. Users describe what they want to learn and the platform designs the interview, which can range from a short feedback conversation to a full market research study. The AI conducts each conversation and asks follow-up questions based on the person's answers. It then groups the responses into themes and links each finding to the quotes behind it, with results available within minutes.