AI-Moderated Interview Checklist: Plan, Brief, Test, Review

What is the AI-moderated interview checklist?

It’s a free, one-page checklist for planning, briefing, testing and reviewing an AI-moderated interview study, so what comes back is ready to inform a decision. It has 32 checks across six stages, from naming the decision your study informs to tracing every insight back to the sessions it came from.

Teams keep getting asked to cover more ground with fewer people. AI-moderated interviews help you hear from more of them, on their schedule and often in their own language. The checklist keeps the research craft you already have at the center while an AI moderator runs the conversations.

It’s built from Askable’s webinar AI moderation: How to move fast without losing rigor. In the session, Askable Research Advocate Ben Wiedmaier covered how to balance participants, moderator and goals, when to bring in a human researcher, and how to test a study before you scale it.
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What is an AI-moderated interview?

An AI-moderated interview is a one-to-one research interview where an AI moderator asks the questions and follows up on each answer, guided by research goals you set. Participants join a video session at a time that suits them, and you get a recording and transcript of every conversation. On Askable, AI-moderated interviews run in 15+ languages.
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Who is the checklist for?

Anyone running AI-moderated interviews, whatever their title: researchers and ResearchOps leads, and the product managers and designers who run their own research. Use it to:

• Check a study before it launches, so the brief, participants and preview are ready.
• Review sessions against your goals before you share what you found.
• Show stakeholders how the study was set up, so they can see why the results hold.
• Coach newer team members with one shared standard.

What’s in the checklist?

• Start with the decision: Name the decision your study informs and when it’s due, separate what you know from what you’re assuming, and see where AI moderation fits best.
• Choose your participants: Confirm you’re hearing from real people who fit your criteria, that they know they’re talking with an AI moderator, and that the session respects their time.
• Brief your moderator: Write one goal per topic in neutral language, set how deep each goal goes, and give the AI the context it needs to follow up well.
• Taste-test the experience: Try the study as a participant, then pilot it with people like your audience. See how it handles a vague answer, an unexpected topic, a misunderstanding and a sensitive moment.
• Review before you scale: Check the recordings and transcripts against your goals, then choose your next step: launch, revise and test again, or add another method.
• Keep learning after launch: Trace every insight back to the sessions it came from, look for experiences that differ from the pattern, and plan human-led follow-ups where they add depth.
• Three questions before you act on an insight: Real people? Right depth? Traceable?

Frequently asked questions

When should you use AI moderation instead of a human moderator?

Use AI moderation when you need to explore a defined topic with more people, keep coverage consistent across sessions, or reach people across time zones and languages. Bring in a human researcher for emotionally complex topics, high-stakes decisions, or when you need to watch someone use a product, since AI-moderated interviews are conversation only.

How many research goals fit in an AI-moderated interview?

Askable’s guidance is two to three moderate-depth goals for a 15-minute interview (Creating research goals). If you have more than that, keep the goals that could change the decision and move the rest to another study.

How do you test an AI-moderated study before launch?

Take the interview yourself as a participant, then pilot it with a few people like your audience. Check the introduction, pacing and follow-ups, and see how the moderator handles a vague answer, an unexpected topic, a misunderstanding and a sensitive moment. On Askable, the interview build locks once you submit the study for review, so test it first.

How do you know you can trust the findings?

Go back to the recordings and transcripts rather than relying on a summary alone, trace every insight to the sessions it came from, look for experiences that differ from the pattern, and be clear with stakeholders about what the study can and can’t tell you.

Does the checklist work with any AI moderation tool?

Yes. The checks apply to any AI-moderated interview. Where a step depends on your tool, such as which changes need a new study, the checklist asks you to confirm it.

Keep going

Missed the webinar? Watch the recording to hear the full session. For the bigger picture on how teams use AI in research, read Is your team using AI well, or just using AI? and the Research Leaders’ Retro.