New Releases

Optimal's AI Interviewer is built with a human-in-the-loop approach. You define the context, control the structure, and decide when and how to use it.

Guided by your study context, discussion guide, and research goals, the AI Interviewer can intelligently adapt in real-time and probe further when needed.

Review automated key themes, summaries, and insights. Free up your time so you can focus on insights and accelerate decision-making.

To get started, create a new AI Interviewer study.

Build profiles and define exactly who you need from demographics, location, seniority, company size, and more.

Explore the new recruitment capabilities available with Profiles - now added to Prototype Testing, Live Site Testing, First-click Testing, Surveys, Card Sorting, and Tree Testing:

• Recruit multiple profiles in a single study
  Create participant profiles with different targeting criteria, assign separate quotas to each, and recruit them simultaneously within the same study. This makes it easier to reach and compare distinct audiences without creating separate studies.

• Explore additional targeting
  Get more granular targeting with an additional option to target B2B audiences by company size. You can also set exclusion controls for Prototype Testing and Live Site Testing recruitment. Automatically exclude participants who've taken part in your studies within a set period, e.g. last 3 months.

• Streamline future recruitment
  Profiles are built with reuse in mind. Coming soon, you’ll be able to save and reuse profiles across studies and share them across your Workspace, making it easier to standardize targeting, speed up recruitment, and keep targeting consistent across your team.

Profiles is now available in all tools, except for Qualitative Insights.

Start by selecting Optimal Panels under the Recruit tab.

Connect Optimal to Figma’s AI design agent to bring real research insights directly into your design workflow and build better experiences with every iteration.

Ask Figma’s AI agent to review Optimal study findings, identify usability issues, and update your prototypes based on insights and participant feedback.

Keep the momentum going as you recruit more participants. Bring fresh feedback into each design iteration to continually refine your prototypes and improve the user experience. With Optimal's MCP and Figma, you can quickly close the loop between research and design, making it easier to turn insights into meaningful improvements.

To get started, your Figma admin will need to complete the initial connector setup. Learn more with our setup guide.

We’ve upgraded the technology behind Optimal Intelligence for AI Moderated Questions, powered by cutting-edge models built on Amazon Bedrock, and introduced additional participant controls for a more flexible experience.

• New participant controls for a seamless participant experience. Participants can now choose the conversational style that works best for them, helping them follow a flow that feels comfortable and natural.

• A more natural conversation flow. The updated technology gives Optimal greater control over how AI moderation works specifically for UX research and discovery, allowing Optimal to fine-tune and continuously refine the experience based on your feedback. The improved models help deliver a more natural conversation flow and cadence, giving participants more time to finish their thoughts and respond fully.

• Additional transcript quality checks. When the AI hasn't understood a response clearly, the AI moderator will ask follow-ups to get the clarity it needs, rather than making assumptions, resulting in clearer responses and more accurate transcripts.

The updated models continue to run on Amazon Bedrock, following the same leading standards for AI privacy and security at Optimal.

Create more targeted study experiences by using branching logic to guide participants to the questions, tasks, or sections most relevant to them in Usability Testing. Tailor the study flow and branch participants based on responses to:

• Single-choice questions
• Multiple-choice questions
• Rating scales

Choose what happens when a condition is met:

• Branch to a question or task
• Branch to a section
• End the study

Examples

Have you traveled internationally in the last year?

• Yes → Go to Q2
• No → End study

Or send participants to different study experiences:

• Yes → Go to prototype section
• No → End study

You can also use responses to route participants to different tasks:

When was the last time you traveled internationally?

• More than 1 year ago → Go to Live Site Task 1
• 6–12 months ago → Go to Live Site Task 2

Device targeting is now available directly in Setup > Recording & Devices for Usability Testing. You can set device targeting (desktop, mobile, and tablet) for participants recruited via Optimal as well as participants you invite on your own.

Choose which devices participants can use to complete your study. If a participant’s device doesn’t meet your requirements, they’ll be directed to a page letting them know: “This study is not available on your current device.”

This gives you more control over the study experience and helps you collect feedback in the device context that’s right for your research, such as mobile devices for mobile testing.

We've rebuilt the Sessions section to give you a clearer view of where each participant stands in your study along with quick ways to act on your sessions.

What's new:

• Overview at a glance: Get a clear overview of your participants with Participant, Status, and Time in one clean table. Sort columns to quickly find what you need, such as the shortest or longest sessions. Click on a participant's identifier (e.g. Seahorse) to view their session video and responses.

• Status & synthesis tracking: New tabs - Ready for Review (not yet added to your automated summaries, key themes, and insights), Integrated, and Exclusions - so you can track how each session is progressing
• Quick session management: Use the three-dot menu on any session to reset to pending or exclude.
• Built to expand: This new format lays the groundwork for additional data columns in the future, giving you an even fuller picture of sessions.

To view your participants, go to Results > Sessions in an Optimal Usability Test.

Bring your research data into the tools your business already uses with the new Optimal API.

The API provides secure, read-only access to your research data, making it easier to integrate with data warehouses, business intelligence platforms, internal dashboards, analytics tools, and custom applications.

Instead of relying on manual exports or static reports, you can connect research insights to your existing workflows and combine them with broader business data.

With the API, you can:

• Centralize research data in platforms like Snowflake
• Build dashboards in Power BI, Tableau, or Looker
• Automate reporting workflows
• Create an internal research repository
• Combine research insights with product analytics and business metrics

This initial release includes read-only access to:

• Research activities
• Research metadata
• Participants
• Responses and results
• Insights and AI-generated insights

Available now for multi-team organizations on Enterprise plans.

To get started, authenticate with OAuth and connect your Optimal account to your preferred application.

Based on user feedback, we’ve made a small update to live site tests to help provide a more intuitive experience for participants.

Previously, the initial task call to action was to Open task in new tab. We heard that participants weren’t always sure whether this action started the task or simply opened it.

We’ve updated the call to action to Start Task to make the next step clearer. When participants select Start Task, the task officially begins and opens in a new tab to helping set clear expectations and keep the experience moving smoothly.

You’ll find this update across Live Site Testing and the Live Site Testing sections of Optimal’s Usability Testing tool.

You can now manage your entire interview workflow in Optimal, from participant recruitment through to research repository.

With Moderated Recruitment for Optimal Interviews, you can:

• Easily recruit and screen qualified B2B and B2C participants
• Review applicants and choose your best fit to invite to your Interviews study
• Recruit for multiple profiles and quotas for one study
• Track recruitment progress in real time
• Securely message participants directly
• Schedule interviews automatically

Once interview sessions are complete, they’re automatically uploaded to Optimal Interviews, where you can review automated insights, highlight reels, and key quotes and use AI Chat to further explore your data.

Everything stays connected, giving you more visibility, less admin, and greater control throughout your research process.

To get started with a new study, go to Interviews > Recruit.