AI study planning

Let AI design a complete research plan — audience, methodology, sample size, and survey outline — from a single description.

The AI study planner generates a full research plan from your description, including audience targeting, collection format, question outline, estimated duration, and cost estimates. Review and approve the plan, then convert it directly into a configured survey.

getting-startedaiplanningresearch2-10 minutesBeginnerResearchersProduct teamsStudents

Steps

  1. Start a new survey
    From the dashboard, click Create and describe your research goal. The AI study planner activates automatically when you begin creating a survey with AI.
  2. Describe your research or let the AI guide you
    Two modes are available: One-shot (provide your full description and get an instant plan with sensible defaults) or Guided (the AI asks focused questions one at a time about your goal, audience, modality, sourcing, and languages).
  3. Review the study plan
    The AI generates a study plan card showing: research goal, collection format (standard, AI interview, or hybrid), question count with type breakdown, estimated duration, target audience and participant count, and a step-by-step survey outline. For Prolific studies, cost estimates are included.
  4. Approve, adjust, or skip
    Click Approve to convert the plan into a configured survey. Click Adjust to refine specific parts. Or click Skip Planning to jump straight into the editor.

The study planner bridges the gap between a research idea and a ready-to-launch survey. It handles methodology decisions, question type selection, and sample size estimation so you can focus on your research goals.

Three collection formats are supported: Standard (fixed questions with optional AI probes), AI Interview (single conversational interview), and Hybrid (fixed questions plus an AI interview section).

The plan includes a question outline showing each proposed question with its type (multiple choice, AI interview, screener, etc.), making it easy to review the survey structure before building.

For studies using Prolific, the planner estimates participant costs based on duration and sample size.

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