Updated October 2026. Listen Labs is one of the fastest-growing AI-moderated interview platforms, and in September 2026 Salesforce agreed to buy it. The main alternatives in 2026 are Yazi, Outset, Conveo, Strella, Voxpopme, Glaut, Tellet, Verso, Discuss and Remesh.

Most of them run AI interviews through a browser link, so the real differences are elsewhere: who you can reach and how, what else the platform runs besides a single interview, how much a study costs, and who owns the company. This guide compares all ten on those points so you can get to a shortlist quickly.

What Listen Labs Does Well

Listen Labs runs AI-moderated interviews by video, voice or text at large scale, with screen-share usability, concept and creative tests, quant question types such as MaxDiff, and Pulse, a conversational tracker. Interviews and reports run in 120+ languages, and the output is polished: ready-to-share decks, highlight reels and a research library across studies.

It has strong enterprise credentials: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and ISO 42001 certification, a panel it puts at 50M+, and customers including Microsoft and Anthropic. It raised a $69M Series B in January 2026, and on 29 September 2026 Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire it, with the deal expected to close between November 2026 and January 2027.

Why Teams Look for a Listen Labs Alternative

• Ownership. Salesforce plans to make Listen Labs available through its own products, including Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud, and hasn't said what standalone access will look like. Teams that aren't on Salesforce, or that don't want research data inside a CRM vendor, are asking what comes next.
• Contract size. Pricing is quote only and enterprise-led. Smaller teams and agencies often want something they can run per project.
• Studies over time. Listen Labs is built around the single interview and tracker. Teams running diaries or multi-step studies need something else.
• Reaching people who won't click a link. Browser interviews work well with online panels. They work less well with a client's own customers or mobile-first audiences who ignore emailed links.

Listen Labs Alternatives Compared

The table below shows how participants take part in each platform, whether it has its own panel, and what it is best for. All ten have some form of AI moderation or analysis, and most price on a custom quote, so we've focused on how each one works.

1. Yazi: AI Interviews, Diaries and Surveys Inside WhatsApp

Listen Labs and the other platforms in this list send participants to a web link or an app. Yazi runs the whole study inside WhatsApp, the app people already open dozens of times a day. There's no link to open, no camera to switch on and no account to create, and participants answer the way they'd reply to a friend: a quick text, a voice note on the way home, or a photo or video of what's in front of them.

AI moderation with a human in the loop: The AI moderator follows your discussion guide and follows up on every answer in the chat. A researcher can take over any conversation live and hand it back, and group discussions can be run by a human moderator or the AI.

More than one interview: Yazi runs AI interviews, surveys, multi-day diaries and WhatsApp group discussions from one platform, so a study can screen with a survey, go deep with an AI interview and then follow people for days or weeks, with reminders in the same thread.

Reporting: Answers are grouped into themes as they arrive, with an AI-written executive summary you can edit and export to PDF or PowerPoint, cross-tabs, transcripts that read like the original chat, and highlight reels cut from participants' own voice notes and videos.

Panel and reach: A 1.8M+ panel with reach in 25+ countries, or your own customer list. Yazi moderates natively in English, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Setswana, Sesotho, Swahili, French, Portuguese and others, with AI translation across 100+ languages. Studies hold a 90% completion rate.

Quality and compliance: Automated checks flag inconsistent answers and responses that look AI-generated. Yazi is POPIA, GDPR and CCPA compliant, with research data hosted on AWS in the UK and Ireland.

Where it fits less well: Participants need WhatsApp, and Yazi isn't built for screen-share prototype testing or live video focus groups. For those, the browser-based tools below are the better fit.

Best for: Diaries and studies that run over days; research with a client's own customers or a general population; studies that mix quant and qual; teams who want AI scale with a researcher able to step in; and mobile-first audiences in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and anywhere WhatsApp is the default way people talk. For a direct side-by-side, see Yazi vs Listen Labs.

2. Outset: AI Interviews and Prototype Testing for Enterprise

San Francisco-based Outset was founded in 2022 by Aaron Cannon and Michael Hess and has raised $51M, including a $30M Series B led by Radical Ventures in December 2025 with Microsoft's M12 taking part. Customers include HubSpot, Microsoft, Nestlé, Coinbase and WeightWatchers.

What it does: AI-moderated interviews by video, voice or text, screen-share usability on Figma prototypes, live sites and apps, concept tests and rating questions with probing. In 2026 it added Visual Intelligence, the Outset Agent for Claude, ChatGPT, Figma and Notion (May), Co-Design (July), diary studies (August) and digital twins.

How participants take part: Asynchronously through a link, mostly by voice, with Outset recommending a desktop or laptop. Outset doesn't run its own panel; recruitment is built in through 25+ partner panels such as Prolific and User Interviews, or your own list.

Worth knowing: Pricing is a subscription on a custom quote. Outset is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 42001 certified. Independent reviews are scarce, with none on G2 at the time of writing.

Best for: Enterprise insights and UX teams who want AI interviews and prototype testing in one place, on a recruitment panel they already use.

3. Conveo: Video-First Consumer Research

Conveo was founded in Antwerp in April 2024 by Dieter De Mesmaeker and Hendrik Van Hove, went through Y Combinator, and raised a $50M Series A in September 2026 with DST Global and Balderton. It says it works with 400+ enterprises, including Unilever, AB InBev and JDE Peet's.

What it does: Async AI video and voice interviews, concept, pack, ad and claims tests with emotion and facial analysis, pricing questions such as Van Westendorp and Gabor-Granger, journaling and diaries, screen-share usability, and StoryLines, an always-on interview programme launched in July 2026. It runs in 48 languages.

How participants take part: In a browser on a computer by default, with a microphone required and the camera optional or required depending on the study. Phones are used for screen-share studies through Conveo's app.

Recruitment: No own panel. Conveo connects to Respondent, Norstat and other partner panels, or you invite your own people by list, link or QR code.

Worth knowing: Its G2 listing puts enterprise plans from $45,000 a year, prepaid, with a pay-as-you-go option for smaller teams. Conveo lists SOC 2 and ISO 27001.

Best for: CPG and FMCG brands who want video evidence of how consumers react to concepts, packs and ads.

4. Strella: AI Interviews and Usability for Product Teams

New York-based Strella, founded by Lydia Hylton and Priya Krishnan, raised a $14M Series A led by Bessemer in October 2025, a year after launching. Customers include Amazon, Chobani and Duolingo.

What it does: AI-moderated interviews, usability and prototype tests, mobile app tests, card sorts (added July 2026) and, since October 2026, human-moderated studies. Analysis includes automatic response coding and an AI chat for building highlight reels, and Strella is available as a connector in Claude and ChatGPT.

How participants take part: Browser voice or video calls. Some studies need a desktop with a webcam and screen sharing. Strella says its panel reaches up to 8M participants, with incentives paid in the platform, or you can bring your own.

Worth knowing: Pricing is on a quote. G2 rates it 4.4 out of 5 from 22 reviews.

Best for: US product, UX and consumer teams who want AI interviews and usability tests with a built-in panel.

5. Voxpopme: Video Answers at Scale, with an AI Interviewer

Voxpopme, founded in 2013 with bases in Park City, Utah and Birmingham, UK, is built around short video responses. You can run standalone video surveys or embed video questions in a quant survey, run AI-moderated voice and video interviews, and hold live one-to-one interviews (IDIs), with a repository and showreel builder on top.

What's new: AI Moderator launched in June 2025, with Smart Probing and stimulus testing added that September. In May 2026 Voxpopme launched Compass, an AI research agent that searches past studies, builds slides and showreels, and can launch new studies.

How participants take part: In the browser on any device. Recruitment comes from Voxpopme's On Demand Community, which recruits in 27 countries, or your own customers.

Worth knowing: It's built for single-session video feedback rather than multi-day diaries. Pricing is an annual subscription on a custom quote. Reviewers like the ease of use and support, but mention the work of handling large volumes of video and uneven video quality.

Best for: Enterprise and mid-market CPG, retail and consumer tech teams who want video feedback at scale and showreels for stakeholders.

6. Glaut: Voice AI Interviews for Research Agencies

Glaut was founded in Milan in late 2023 and is built for experienced researchers rather than as a black box. It runs AI-moderated voice interviews and classic surveys on one platform, with coding, cross-tabs and reports, and agencies including Ipsos appear among its customers.

What it does: Voice AI interviews (participants can type instead), surveys, real-time coding of open ends and reports with PowerPoint export. Recent releases include Reason With Data (November 2025) and an Asset Test Loop for creative testing (February 2026), under what Glaut now calls Glaut OS.

How participants take part: Through a browser link, or embedded inside an existing survey tool, so respondents answer AI-moderated questions in the same flow. There's no own panel; it plugs into your sample provider.

Worth knowing: Glaut is ISO 27001 certified and works in 50+ languages. Pricing isn't published, and there's a free trial.

Best for: Agencies that want to add voice depth to quant surveys and keep control of the method.

7. Tellet: Voice-Note Style Interviews from Europe

Amsterdam-based Tellet was started by Merik te Grotenhuis, who previously sold CG Research to Norstat. It runs asynchronous AI interviews built around a mobile chat where participants can answer by voice, video, photo or text, and it can also drop AI probing into existing surveys.

How participants take part: A link, QR code or embed opens a mobile chat in the browser. You bring your own sample or recruit through Tellet's panel partners.

AI: An AI co-pilot for the discussion guide, one-click analysis, and AI Search for asking questions of every transcript after fieldwork.

Worth knowing: Pricing is on a quote. Tellet is GDPR compliant, lists ISO 27001 as coming soon, and supports 50+ languages.

Best for: European agencies and brands who want fast, voice-led exploratory interviews.

8. Verso: Consumer Interviews and Living Personas

Paris-based Verso, founded by Lydia Bellahouel and Camille Epitalon, raised a $6M seed round led by Angular Ventures on 8 October 2026. It works with 30+ companies including Ferrero, Orange and Michelin.

What it does: AI-moderated video and voice interviews, stimulus tests, screen-share tasks and diaries. Instead of a static report per study, Verso builds consumer personas that update as new interviews come in, alongside a Research Agent and PowerPoint generation.

How participants take part: Through a browser link with no app or account, by audio or video. Recruitment runs through partners such as Respondent, Prolific and Rakuten, or your own customers.

Worth knowing: Verso is ISO 27001 certified (April 2026) and keeps data in the EU. It works in 25+ languages. Pricing is prepaid credits on a quote.

Best for: European consumer and FMCG teams who want fast video qual and a growing picture of their consumer.

9. Discuss: Live Video Qual Plus AI Interviews

Discuss is built around live video interviews and focus groups in 100+ markets, with a client backroom, live translation and clips. Since 2025 it has added AI-moderated interviews in 50+ languages, and in November 2025 it combined with Voxco, bringing surveys under the Discuss name.

AI: AI-moderated interviews alongside live sessions, and Discuss Intelligence, a library you can search and question across studies.

How participants take part: Live sessions in the browser at a set time, or AI interviews through a link.

Best for: Teams who want live, human-moderated video qual with clients watching, and AI interviews from the same vendor. See Yazi vs Discuss.

10. Remesh: Live AI-Assisted Conversations at Scale

Remesh runs live online sessions with hundreds of people at once: participants answer in a chat and vote on each other's answers, so a moderator sees in real time which views have the most support. It also offers an async mode (Flex), video responses and employee listening.

AI: Remy, an AI research agent launched in October 2025, and Remesh Connect (July 2026), which links Remesh data to other enterprise systems and AI tools.

How participants take part: In a browser text chat, with video responses on some studies. Remesh offers on-demand recruitment.

Worth knowing: Capterra lists pricing from $5,000. Remesh is SOC 2 Type II compliant. Reviewers like the speed but call it expensive for the number of respondents.

Best for: Enterprise and agency teams who want a live conversation with hundreds of people and instant measures of agreement.

Also Worth a Look

Yasna: A Slovakia-based AI interview tool with built-in recruitment and published pay-as-you-go credit packs.

Maze: Prototype testing with an AI Moderator for quick interviews, on a free plan or Enterprise.

Great Question: Research ops for teams interviewing their own customers, with an AI moderator and recruitment built in.

How to Choose

Start with your participants. Ask how many of the people you need would open a link, sit at a computer or switch on a camera for a research study. If it's most of them, choose on features and price. If it isn't, choose on how little you ask of them before the first answer.

• The closest like-for-like for enterprise AI interviews: Outset or Strella.
• Video evidence of consumer reactions to concepts and ads: Conveo or Verso.
• Video answers at scale and showreels: Voxpopme.
• Agencies adding voice depth to quant surveys: Glaut or Tellet.
• Live sessions with clients watching, or hundreds of people at once: Discuss or Remesh.
• Participants who won't open a link, studies that run over days, or a mobile-first audience: Yazi.

For the wider category, see the best AI-moderated interview tools, and for how the three best-funded platforms compare, Outset vs Listen Labs vs Conveo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Salesforce buying Listen Labs?

Yes. Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Listen Labs on 29 September 2026, in a deal reported at around $2 billion. It's expected to close in Salesforce's fourth fiscal quarter, between November 2026 and January 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

Will Listen Labs still be available outside Salesforce?

Salesforce has said it plans to make Listen Labs' capabilities available through Salesforce products such as Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud. It hasn't said how standalone access will work, so existing and new customers should ask before signing a long contract.

What is the best alternative to Listen Labs?

For enterprise AI interviews and usability tests, Outset or Strella. For video-first consumer research, Conveo. For AI interviews, diaries and surveys where participants answer in WhatsApp rather than a browser link, Yazi.

Does Listen Labs publish its pricing?

No. Listen Labs prices on a quote. Of the alternatives here, Yasna publishes pay-as-you-go credit packs, and Conveo's G2 listing puts enterprise plans from $45,000 a year.

Competitor details come from each vendor's website, release notes, help centre and review listings, and from funding news, checked in October 2026. Products change quickly, so confirm current features and prices with the vendor. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@askyazi.com.