Note: feature available to users with Expert user license.
Overview
Open‑ended questions often receive short or incomplete answers. In a live interview, an interviewer would ask a follow‑up question to better understand what the respondent meant. With Survalyzer’s AI Follow‑Up feature, this same step can now happen automatically in an online survey.
AI first evaluates if follow-up is needed, to avoid putting off respondents who already answered with details, or clearly just don’t want to answer. If follow-up seems safe and valuable, the ai zooms in on the key ideas already mentioned in the respondent’s answer, creating a natural and seamless clarification, just like a human would do.
Use this feature to:
▪ Capture more detail from unclear answers: AI asks a single clarifying question only when the respondent’s first answer is too general.
▪ Get clearer context behind broad statements: If someone mentions something vague (e.g. “The app is confusing”), AI focuses on that specific term to uncover what they meant.
▪ Improve the interpretability of open‑ended feedback: By prompting for clarification, AI helps ensure answers are easier to understand and use in analysis.
How it Works. Quick Summary
- Add an open-ended question in the survey.
- Enable the AI Follow‑Up option in the question settings.
- (Optional) Set minimum and maximum word count limits for the initial answer.
- Respondents first answer the main question during the survey.
- If the answer is too general, the AI generates a clarifying follow‑up question based on the respondent’s own words.
- In the analysis, both in reports and exports, you can view:
- the initial answer,
- the AI‑generated follow‑up question,
- the follow‑up answer,
- and the combined version of both, the initial and the follow-up answer.
Enable or Disable the AI Follow‑Up Feature
You can turn the AI Follow‑Up option for open‑ended questions on or off at any time. To give you full control over your data, whenever you switch the feature off, for example, after testing it in one wave and disabling it in the next, the system will ask what you would like to do with the follow‑up answers that have already been collected.
You can choose between:
Setting Up AI Follow-Up Open-Ended Question
The AI Follow‑Up feature works only with the Open question type.
Follow the steps below to use it in your survey:
- Open the survey editor and go to the Build tab.
- Select +Add content, then add an Open question to your survey.
- The AI Follow‑Up toggle is available in the question settings on the right.
- Set the minimum and maximum word count required for the respondent’s answer before a follow‑up question can be generated.
- You can also choose to mark the question as mandatory, if needed.
How the AI Decides When to Ask a Follow‑Up Question
When a respondent answers a survey question, the AI evaluates the response to determine whether additional follow-up questions are needed. If the initial answer lacks important details, the system generates a highly specific follow-up question to gather more precise information. This ensures that follow-up questions and answers are relevant.
When Are Follow-Up Questions Generated?
An AI Follow-Up question is therefore asked if the initial answer contains missing details, lack of clarity or incomplete information, without which the answer is not actionable enough. For example:
- Missing Details: If response mentions a problem (e.g., “poor customer support”) but does not specify what part of the support process is lacking.
- Clarifications Needed: If the respondent provides feedback that’s actionable but too broad, the AI will ask for example for the exact price range or comparison to make the feedback more useful.
When Are Follow-Up Questions Excluded?
The AI will skip generating a follow-up question in the following cases:
- Sufficient Detail: If the response clearly explains the reasons behind the opinion or provides actionable feedback,
- Immutable Facts: If the answer relates to a personal or external fact that cannot be changed (e.g., “I don’t use this product”),
- Dismissals or Refusals: If the respondent refuses to provide feedback or gives a dismissive one-liner.
Safety Guardrails
To ensure the safety and well-being of all respondents, Survalyzer’s system is equipped with safety guardrails that automatically identify and prevent responses that involve harmful or sensitive content, such as:
- Threats/violence/abuse (e.g., mentions of harm or injury),
- Self-harm/suicidal ideation,
- Sexual content/assault/minors,
- Illegal activity,
- Medical emergencies or diagnosis/treatment requests.
Such responses will immediately stop the system from asking follow-up questions to ensure the safety of data collection.
How Credits are Charged
Each AI activation, as long as the respondent’s answer meets the triggering conditions (such as falling within the defined word count limits), costs 8 credits, regardless of whether a follow‑up question is ultimately generated or not.
Credits are deducted only when an AI prompt runs. The table below shows how different respondent behaviors affect credit usage.
Credit Usage Examples
| Respondent behavior | Does AI run? |
| The answer is too short or too long based on follow-up question settings | ❌ |
| AI checks whether a follow‑up question should be asked, and decides NOT to create one | ✔ |
| AI checks and generates a follow-up question | ✔ |
| Respondents go back to the question after AI has already run* | ❌ |
| AI generates a follow-up question, but the respondent doesn’t provide an answer* | ✔ |
* When the respondent answers the initial open question and the AI Follow‑Up logic runs, the AI evaluation happens only once per question.
In practice, the AI currently generates a follow‑up question in approximately 30–70% of cases, depending on the quality and relevance of the respondent’s answer.
AI Follow-Up Raw Data in Reports and Exports
When you create an open-ended question and enable the AI Follow‑Up option, Survalyzer automatically adds three additional variables. If the original question uses the variable name q1, Survalyzer will also create q1_first_answer, q1_follow_up_question, and q1_follow_up_answer.
The contents of these variables are as follows:
| Variable name | Raw data stored |
| q1 | Combined first answer and follow‑up answer. |
| q1_first_answer | First answer text (when AI follow‑up is enabled and an answer is provided). |
| q1_follow_up_question | Follow‑up question text (when generated). |
| q1_follow_up_answer | Follow-up answer text (when provided). |
Excel Raw Data Example
In the screenshot below you can see how the variables placeholder tree looks like when entering the Manage Code Plan view:
AI Follow-Up Data in Basic Report
If you select an open question with the AI Follow‑Up option enabled in the Question wizard step, all four variables will be added to the table automatically. No additional setup is required. The data is included in your report as soon as you add this question to your report.
AI Follow-Up Data in Segmented Excel Report, Expert Report or Table Wizard
For customizable report types, you can choose whether to include AI Follow‑Up data during the Question Wizard step. When you select the “Include AI Follow‑Up details” option, the report will contain data from all four variables associated with the AI Follow‑Up feature (the combined q1 field plus the three additional variables).
If this option is not selected, the report will include only the main q1 variable, which stores the combined first and follow‑up answer text.
AI Follow-Up Data in AI Open Comments Analytics and AI Open Comments Summary
When AI Follow‑Up is enabled, the main open‑ended question variable automatically stores the combined text of both the first answer and the follow‑up answer (when received). Because of this, AI Open Comments Analytics and AI Open Comments Summary treat both responses as one unified input. All relevant data is included by default, with no additional configuration required.
Learn more:
AI Open Comments Analytics (Sentiment, Topics, PII, Translation)
FAQ
What happens if a respondent goes back in the survey?
If the respondent answers the initial open question and the AI Follow‑Up logic is triggered, the follow‑up is generated only once. It will not be generated again within the same interview, even if the respondent goes back and changes the original answer. If a follow‑up question was created, it remains in the survey structure as a fixed, normal open question.
For which survey languages is the AI Follow‑Up feature supported?
The AI Follow‑Up feature works for all languages supported by Survalyzer. The language of the generated follow‑up question will always match the language of the survey the respondent is currently answering.
Can I filter using AI Follow-Up variables?
Yes, you can use all three variables additionally created for the open question with AI Follow-Up feature turned on.
Why don’t the additional variables appear as separate questions in the Question section of the Report Wizard?
These fields are added in the background to store follow-up details, so they are not shown as standalone questions in the Question section of the Report Wizard. They remain fully available for filtering and placeholders.
Which variables are included in the word cloud in reports?
The main q1 variable (combined answer).
Troubleshooting: AI Follow-Up Question Not Available
If you don’t see the AI Follow-Up (open-ended question) option in Survalyzer or it’s there but impossible to turn on, check the following:
- Make sure you add an Open question – this is the only question type supported with AI Follow-Up feature.
- Check if Response data type is set to none.
- Verify the text field size. The AI Follow-Up feature is visible only for medium and large text field size.
- Ensure you don’t have the Password field setting enabled.
- Verify your license: the AI Follow-Up feature is available only for Expert license users.
- Check if you have sufficient interview credits.