Glaut vs. IDIs

Which methodology gets you closer to your research goals?

IDIs give live dialogue with a small N. Glaut AIMIs scale depth to hundreds. Here’s how to decide which fits your goals.

In-Depth Interview (IDI)
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Both methods reveal human stories: IDIs with a few, AIMIs with many. Together, they give researchers depth and breadth for stronger decisions.

Glaut AIMI vs. IDI at a glance

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In-depth interviews
Depth of Insight
Deep narratives with multi-turn, adaptive probing; voice tone captured
Deep narratives via live human moderation; quality depends on moderator
Moderator quality
Consistent, tireless; Consistent application of your pre-defined guide; adaptive probes follow rules you set, ensuring every respondent is treated equally
Varies by moderator skill; a trained interviewer can flex the conversation in real time, choosing what to probe deeper or differently for each respondent.
ther points
Scale & Speed
Parallel interviews (hundreds/thousands) 24/7; results in hours
Sequential; weeks to book, run, transcribe
Data Quality & Fraud prevention
Real-time uncooperative detection, voice-only mode, and response consistency checks
Manual screening and post-hoc checks
Analysis time
AI agents analyze raw verbatims with multi-layer levels of depth in minutes. Charts, crosstabs, TOM, and trends visualization included
Manual coding of raw verbatim take days or weeks
Participant comfort
Private, asynchronous, and device-friendly; participants can answer when and where they prefer, often leading to higher completion rates
Real-time human interaction builds trust and empathy; some participants feel more comfortable opening up to a person, some people not. Scheduling and setting can add pressure
Human role
Researchers design, supervise, interpret
Researchers design, moderate, and improvise in real-time
Cost efficiency
Lower cost per depth at scale
Higher per-interview cost
When it shines
Large N qual, hard-to-reach segments, global, rapid iteration
Very delicate, emotional or sensitive topics; live co-creation

When to use each

Choose In-Depth Interviews for
Live, bespoke rapport with a specific moderator
Very delicate or high-stakes conversations handled synchronously
Co-creation or high-touch exercises that benefit from live facilitation
Add-on ethnographic elements such as in-context observation
Choose Glaut AIMIs for
Rich depth at scale, from dozens to thousands of interviews
Access to hard-to-reach audiences with global coverage easier
Fast turnaround from brief to insights: real-time coding of verbatims
Consistency across interviews and better cost per interview

Often best together: use Glaut to surface patterns quickly, then run a handful of IDIs to deep-dive edge cases or workshop solutions.

Mantain full control over the AI-moderator

With Glaut, you’re always in the driver’s seat. You can customize every step,  from moderator tone of voice to logic and analysis, while maintaining full control of the process.

Instruct the moderator’s voice, probing style, and follow-up intensity
Edit questions, logic, quotas, and screenouts with full transparency
Upload your own guides or codebooks or adapt ours to fit your needs
Refine analyses by reviewing, merging, and tailoring outputs
Agile Quantifiable Qual (AQQ)
Most projects today don’t fit neatly into “classic qual” or “pure quant.” Clients want both: the nuance of real voices and the confidence of scale, delivered fast.

AQQ is quantifiable like a survey, but deeper than quant and lighter than IDIs. It blends structured, comparable data with open-ended probing and narrative answers, delivering insights in days, not weeks. It's not a replacement to IDIs, it’s the solutions for  briefs where hundreds of voices matter and speed is non-negotiable.
Faq

Get answers to the most commonly asked questions

Is Glaut a replacement for IDIs?

Not always. Think of Glaut AIMIs as a way to extend the reach of in-depth interviews, not eliminate them. AIMIs deliver IDI-level depth at scale, with the added benefits of speed, consistency, and built-in analysis. But there are contexts where a small set of live, human-moderated IDIs remain the right choice, such as highly delicate topics, executive interviews, or creative co-creation sessions that thrive on live human rapport. In practice, many research teams use both: AIMIs to capture breadth and patterns quickly, and IDIs to deep-dive into edge cases or build live creative dialogue.

Will AI “invent” responses?

No. AIMIs  never fabricate answers. The AI moderator’s role is to ask questions, adaptively probe, and transcribe. Every word of data comes directly from the participant, in their own voice or text. The AI moderates the conversation, ensures coverage of your guide, and applies consistency checks. Fraud detection agents catch low-effort, copy-pasted, or gibberish inputs. What you get is authentic respondent data - captured in full and instantly available for analysis - without the risk of moderator bias or transcription gaps.

Can I customize the interview?

Yes, down to the last detail. Researchers control the entire design process: research goals, screener, quotas, languages (50+ supported), interview guide, follow-ups, branching logic, and tone of moderation. You also decide how aggressive the AI-moderator should be with probing, what thresholds to apply for fraud checks, and how the analysis dashboard is configured.. You can pause, edit, or relaunch projects at any point, and nothing goes live without your approval. AIMIs are built to keep you firmly in control, with Glaut doing the operational heavy lifting.

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