AI Follow-up Questions: What They Are and Where They Work¶
"It could be better" is a real answer to an open-ended question, and it's also useless on its own. In a live interview, the obvious move is to ask "in what way?" A traditional survey can't do that - the question was written in advance, and there's no one on the other end to notice a vague answer and probe further. AI Follow-up Questions close that gap: when a respondent gives an answer worth digging into, the survey asks a relevant follow-up automatically, in the moment.
Where It Works¶
AI Follow-up Questions are available on open-ended questions only - they don't apply to single-select, scale, ranking, or other structured question types, since those already capture a defined answer with nothing ambiguous left to probe. It's also specific to the Chat Interface take experience; a follow-up shows up as the next message in the conversation, which isn't a shape that fits the Traditional Form take experience.
Turning It On¶
From an open-ended question's settings in the survey builder, enable AI Follow-up Questions. There's no separate follow-up question to write yourself - the survey generates a relevant one based on what the respondent actually answered, so it can differ from one respondent to the next depending on their original response.
AI Follow-up enabled on a sample question, with instructions for what the follow-up should probe for and a cap on how many can be asked. The instructions text is an example.
What Respondents See¶
A follow-up appears as a natural next message in the chat, the same as any other question - there's no visible label marking it as AI-generated or otherwise different from a question you wrote yourself. The experience is designed to feel like a continuation of the conversation, not a distinct feature bolted on top of it.
Cost¶
Generating a follow-up is a credit-based action, since it happens live during each respondent's session rather than once at survey design time. You'll see a credit estimate in the builder before turning it on, based on your expected number of responses.
What It Isn't¶
AI Follow-up Questions ask one relevant next question based on a single answer - it isn't an open-ended AI interviewer that branches indefinitely or restructures the rest of your survey based on the conversation. The rest of your survey continues as designed regardless of what a follow-up uncovers.
FAQ¶
Can I write my own fallback follow-up instead of relying on the AI-generated one?
The follow-up is generated per-respondent based on their specific answer, rather than a single fallback question you write in advance - that's the core of what makes it useful, since a fixed follow-up couldn't adapt to what was actually said.
Does every respondent get a follow-up?
Whether a given answer warrants a follow-up depends on the answer itself - a short but complete answer may not trigger one the way a vague or ambiguous one would.
Can I use this on more than one open-ended question in the same survey?
Yes - it can be enabled per-question, independently, on as many open-ended questions as you'd like.
Is there any bot-protection on this, since it involves live AI generation?
Yes - the feature includes protection against automated or abusive use, running invisibly in the background without adding any extra step for a genuine respondent.
Does a follow-up answer get analyzed the same way as the original question?
Follow-up responses are captured as their own open-ended answers and can be run through Text Analytics the same as any other open-ended question.
Curious how the resulting open-ended answers - including follow-ups - get turned into charts? See How Text Analytics Works: From Open-Ends to Categories.