From Manual Interviews to AI Consumer Research Platforms
AI-powered consumer research platforms are software systems that use autonomous agents to conduct long-form conversations with customers, interpret those dialogues, and turn them into structured insights at speeds and costs that were previously impossible for traditional research teams. Instead of coordinating calendars, scripting surveys, and stitching together notes, product and marketing leaders can now delegate entire interview workflows to AI that listens, follows up, and delivers analysis as a continuous service. That shift matters: it is turning depth research from an occasional, expensive project into a default input for everyday decisions. Trooly’s new AI-native user research platform is built precisely for this context, running 45-minute interviews that aim to match the understanding a senior researcher would reach. At the same time, telli’s AI agents automate customer-facing operations across voice, chat, SMS, WhatsApp and email for millions of conversations.
Trooly: Depth-First, Automated Market Research at Interview Scale
Most automated market research tools have focused on scale: short, survey-like AI sessions that generate clicks and multiple-choice answers fast. Trooly takes the opposite bet. Its platform is built to hold a single, 45-minute in-depth interview with a consumer anywhere in the world and return with the kind of understanding a senior researcher would reach. The core is an intelligent follow-up engine that chooses each next question in real time based on what the participant says, instead of following a fixed script. That design matters because purchase decisions hinge on emotional triggers, workarounds, and context that never show up in a tick-box survey. Trooly runs a four-step workflow—from framing the business question to recruiting a global panel, conducting AI research interviews, and generating an interactive report—that turns a single question into executable consumer insights automation at roughly 20x the speed and one-tenth the cost of traditional research.
telli: Turning Everyday Customer Conversations Into Continuous Research
Where Trooly concentrates on depth interviews, telli focuses on the operational layer: the messy reality of customer conversations spread across email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice and chat. Berlin-based telli has raised USD 15 million (approx. RM69 million) in seed funding—bringing total funding to more than USD 18.5 million (approx. RM85 million)—to expand its AI platform for customer-facing operations. Its AI agents already handle millions of customer conversations for businesses from SMEs to large enterprises, answering enquiries, qualifying leads, booking appointments and resolving service requests. At the center sits Charlie, an AI coworker that helps teams build and optimize agents, connect internal systems, analyze interactions and improve communications. This is opinionated design: telli assumes customer-facing operations are now too complex for manual tools alone and that the next generation of consumer companies will need AI that can talk to customers and help teams improve the operation behind every interaction.
Autonomous AI Agents Are Quietly Rewriting the Research Workflow
The deeper story behind Trooly and telli is not "AI as a feature" but AI as the new research worker. Trooly’s interviewer is a multimodal voice agent sharpened by a two-layer fast-and-slow reasoning model, asking deep follow-ups that illuminate hidden purchase drivers and emotional triggers. It carries a research question all the way from framing to insight, straight from conversation to report, without a human coordinator stitching transcripts into slides. telli’s Charlie plays a similar role on the operational front, spotting issues in customer conversations and automating workflows across sales, service and support. Together, these systems represent a shift from manual research coordination to autonomous AI agents that handle interview follow-ups, analysis, and even the customer touchpoints that feed future studies. According to Trooly, "speed and volume aren’t the hard part of AI research anymore — depth is," and that is exactly what these agents are built to solve.
Global, Always-On Consumer Insight Will Change How Teams Decide
The practical impact for ordinary users is subtle but important: whenever they ask a question, book an appointment, or react to a new feature, they are now likely speaking to a research-grade AI. Trooly’s beta, backed by nearly USD 20 million (approx. RM93 million) in seed funding, is open to research, product and growth teams in North America, with global availability rolling out next. Its participant pool already spans 180 million respondents across six continents and more than 30 countries, giving teams reach they would rarely achieve with travel and local agencies alone. telli is using its new funding to expand engineering and go-to-market teams, further develop Charlie, enhance its multi-channel AI agent platform and support more B2C companies in adopting AI-powered customer operations. The direction is clear: consumer insights automation will become always-on infrastructure, not a side project—and teams that keep clinging to slow, manual workflows will be out-decided long before they are out-competed.
