Discuss Launches Discuss Now, an AI Agent Platform That Sources Participants, Conducts Interviews, and Delivers Insights in Hours

Three purpose-built AI agents handle participant sourcing, asynchronous interviewing, and insight synthesis, giving marketing, UX, and insights teams same-day access to customer feedback across 150-plus countries.

SEATTLE, May 29, 2025 — Discuss today launched Discuss Now, an AI-powered interview solution in which three AI agents automate every stage of in-depth customer research: the Project Agent sources and qualifies participants, the Interview Agent conducts audio and video conversations 24 hours a day, and the Insights Agent synthesizes findings into answers tied to the research objective. Results are available in hours. The same platform integrates human-moderated research for studies that require live moderation, giving teams both options without switching tools or vendors.

Key Takeaways

– Discuss Now uses three AI agents (Project, Interview, and Insights) to automate participant sourcing, asynchronous interviewing, and insight synthesis, delivering research findings in hours rather than days or weeks.

– The Project Agent draws from a vetted global pool spanning 150-plus countries, 100,000-plus job titles, and 290,000-plus skills, with initial responses available in minutes.

– The Interview Agent conducts audio-led and video-led conversations 24 hours a day, adapting follow-up questions in real time based on each participant’s responses and the research objective.

– The Insights Agent uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to personalize synthesis to each team’s specific business context, surfacing themes, representative quotes, and findings linked directly to the research objective.

– Discuss Now integrates with the broader Discuss platform, allowing teams to move between AI-led and human-led research within the same environment and the same participant pool.

– Customer loyalty rates have dropped from 76 percent to 53 percent over the past five years, according to Harvard Business Review, increasing the stakes for brands making packaging, product, and messaging decisions without reliable consumer input.

Three AI Agents, Each Designed For A Specific Stage

Consumer research has historically required teams to coordinate separate vendors and tools for participant recruitment, interviewing, and analysis. Discuss Now consolidates all three stages into a single system, with each agent focused on one step in the sequence.

The Project Agent evaluates a team’s target profile and identifies qualified participants from a global pool spanning 150-plus countries, 100,000-plus job titles, and 290,000-plus skills. It handles screening and scheduling within the platform. Initial responses arrive in minutes.

The Interview Agent runs audio-led and video-led conversations around the clock, without geographic or scheduling constraints. It adapts in real time, using each participant’s response along with the research objective and any external context the team has provided to generate sharper follow-up questions. On mobile, participants can flip their cameras for in-store shop-alongs or in-home usage tours.

The Insights Agent reviews every conversation and distills findings into answers to the team’s most specific research questions. It surfaces themes, representative quotes, and connections between individual responses and the broader research objective, so findings arrive ready to act on rather than ready to code.

AI-Led And Human-Led Research In One Platform

Discuss Now runs as a standalone solution. It also integrates into the broader Discuss platform, where teams can move between AI-led and human-led research without changing tools. A team can run a rapid AI-led study to identify which concepts warrant deeper exploration, then conduct human-moderated sessions with the same participant pool to probe the findings that matter most. Both modes share the same analysis infrastructure, so insights from both accumulate in a single environment rather than two separate reports.

Built For The Demands Of In-Depth Customer Research

The agents in Discuss Now were built specifically for qualitative research, trained on decades of industry knowledge and millions of conversations conducted on the Discuss platform. A dynamic training layer allows teams to bring their own expertise into every study.

Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), teams can extend how Discuss’s agents ask questions and deliver findings by supplying external context: project briefs, participants’ past responses, industry reports, or the probing style of the team’s most experienced human moderators. When a participant answers a question, the Interview Agent uses that response alongside the external context already provided to generate the most relevant follow-up question while keeping the conversation on the research objective. The Insights Agent applies the same contextual layer to its synthesis, producing summaries and answers calibrated to each team’s specific questions rather than generic theme clusters.

“The biggest barrier to better consumer research has always been time,” said Simon Glass, chief executive officer of Discuss. “Discuss Now gives teams the ability to ask a question on Monday and have synthesized findings from real customers by end of day. For teams that need a live conversation to go deeper, that option is one click away on the same platform.”

Availability

– Discuss Now (Project Agent, Interview Agent, Insights Agent): Available now

– Integration with the broader Discuss platform: Available now

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Discuss Now and how does it work?

Discuss Now is an AI-powered interview solution that automates participant sourcing, asynchronous interviewing, and insight synthesis using three purpose-built AI agents. Teams define their research objective, and the agents handle the full process: the Project Agent identifies and qualifies participants from a global pool, the Interview Agent conducts audio and video conversations around the clock, and the Insights Agent synthesizes findings into answers tied to the specific research objective. Results are available in hours rather than days or weeks.

How does the Project Agent source participants?

The Project Agent evaluates a team’s target profile and identifies qualified participants from a vetted global pool spanning 150-plus countries, 100,000-plus job titles, and 290,000-plus skills. It handles screening and scheduling within the Discuss platform. Initial responses are typically available within minutes of launching a study.

How does the Interview Agent differ from a survey or a human-moderated focus group?

Unlike a survey, the Interview Agent conducts a real conversation: it adapts follow-up questions in real time based on each participant’s response, probing for depth while keeping the conversation on the research objective. Unlike a human-moderated focus group, it runs 24 hours a day across time zones without scheduling coordination. It supports both audio and video, and participants can use mobile cameras for in-store shop-alongs or in-home usage sessions.

What is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and how does Discuss use it in Discuss Now?

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a technique that allows AI agents to draw from external documents and data when generating questions, follow-ups, or synthesis. In Discuss Now, teams can supply project briefs, participants’ past responses, industry reports, or established interviewing styles to personalize how the agents conduct interviews and interpret findings. The result is output tailored to a team’s specific business context rather than generic summaries drawn only from the conversation itself.

When should teams use Discuss Now versus a human-moderated Discuss interview?

Discuss Now is suited for rapid pulse checks, high-volume studies, cross-time-zone fieldwork, and situations where speed and scale are the primary requirements. Human-moderated Discuss interviews are suited for studies where live probing, cultural nuance, or sensitive subject matter requires an experienced moderator. Both are available on the same platform, using the same participant pool and analysis infrastructure, and teams can use either independently or sequence them within the same research program.

About Discuss

Discuss is a global AI-powered market research platform that combines AI-led interviews with human-moderated research. Its platform, complete with AI Agents and human-led research options, enables organizations to collect, analyze, and share in-depth feedback from audiences in more than 100 countries. Trusted by leading Insights, Marketing, Product, CX, and UX professionals, including 3M, Suntory Global Spirits, Mastercard, HelloFresh, Reckitt, The Standard, Mondelez, Ipsos, and Escalent. Learn more at discuss.io.

Media Contact: pr@discuss.io