Outset, a San Francisco startup, raised $17 million in Series A funding to accelerate adoption of its AI-moderated research platform among enterprises.
The platform conducts video interviews with research participants using AI moderators and has major customers like Nestlé and Microsoft.
Outset's technology is positioned as faster, more cost-effective, and providing broader reach than traditional market research methods.
AI moderators prompt and interact with participants through voice, text, images, and videos, synthesizing results for instant reporting and analytics.
The company competes with traditional research incumbents and other AI startups, offering a comprehensive enterprise platform with security features and customization.
Outset's AI excels in concept testing, usability research, market strategy studies, and longitudinal research, but not in scenarios requiring deep personal connections or complete improvisation.
The funding will be used to expand the go-to-market team and develop more advanced AI agents to enhance customer understanding.
Outset aims to become the world's first end-to-end, AI-native enterprise research platform and achieve over 5x revenue growth within 12 months.
The success of AI-moderated research at Outset may disrupt traditional market research methods, offering faster, scalable, and cost-effective alternatives.
AI's potential to enhance customer insights and behaviors, coupled with Outset's enterprise focus and security features, positions the company as a leading option in AI-moderated research.
The emergence of AI interviewers challenging traditional human-led research methods indicates a shift towards automated solutions for customer understanding and data collection.