Why an Empathetic AI Chatbot Is the Key to Deeper Insights

Not all AI probing is equal — true insight demands more than generic follow-up questions. Many tools can ask the next question, but they can’t truly listen. That’s why inca SmartProbe takes a different approach. It’s built as an empathetic AI chatbot that blends AI with empathy, carefully trained by expert market researchers to unlock deeper qualitative insights. 

It’s more than text and numbers, by combining AI with empathy, inca’s SmartProbe uncovers the why behind what people think, feel, and choose.

Empathy That Drives Real Insight

inca SmartProbe shifts probing from mechanical to meaningful. Rather than repeating generic prompts or sounding robotic, inca SmartProbe is trained by expert researchers to respond with empathy — reflecting on what people say and replying with context and intention. 

This matters because deeper insight comes from understanding the reasoning behind an opinion, not just the opinion itself. Here’s what our recent study uncovered:

  • 2.8× higher word count with inca SmartProbe versus no probing, meaning significantly richer and more thoughtful answers.

  • inca SmartProbe delivers 2× more significant findings from open-ended questions, revealing nuanced opinions and key differences between segments.

  • When inca SmartProbe is added to an open-ended question, the additional depth of insight obtained is 2.4× more likely to explain participant behavior, giving researchers clearer, more actionable recommendations.

This is what makes inca SmartProbe more than an AI-driven survey probing feature — it listens, interprets, and builds on what people say, creating depth that generic probing can’t match.

Help Every Participant Share What Matters, Even For The Most Sensitive Topics

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you should just probe when a participant gives a short answer to an initial open-ended question. 

Yes, inca SmartProbe helps reluctant participants tell us more - people who answered between 1 and 5 words to the initial question, provide an average of 6.6 words to inca SmartProbe, providing much better understanding. However, when you have a really engaged participant, inca’s empathetic probing unlocks so much more richness. Participants who give a very long answer to the initial open-ended question, provide an average of an additional 25.2 words to inca SmartProbe. Demonstrating that inca’s, expertly trained empathetic AI probing unlocks richer stories and deeper insights from all participants.

In traditional surveys, response to open-ended questions about more sensitive topics can be particularly limited. One of our partner agencies ran a study where they graded open-ended questions as low, medium or high sensitivity. They found that as they moved from a medium to high sensitivity topic, participants provided 2 less words. However, when they added inca SmartProbe to the same questions, 6 more words were generated for the high sensitivity topics. 

This just goes to show that when we probe with empathy, participants feel able to share rich, detailed stories about topics where they are likely to clam up with traditional survey open-ended questions.

Quality Over Quantity: Better Answers, Not Just More Words

Length alone doesn’t equal insight. That’s why inca SmartProbe is evaluated not only on volume, but on the quality of the responses it elicits.

When graded for richness and clarity:

  • Only 13% of responses generated by generic probing were rated “excellent.”

  • With inca’s empathetic approach, that number jumped to 65%.

This demonstrates why it’s not enough to simply automate probes. A tool built for research and built with empathy produces answers that help teams see what really matters. When inca AI Coding is used in tandem with inca SmartProbe, researchers benefit from both sophisticated AI probing and a quick, accurate open-ended analysis tool, providing an end-to-end conversational engine for deeper insights

This moves inca beyond simple automation to a true AI moderated research workflow for surveys.

Takeaway: Empathy Unlocks the Insights that Matter

inca SmartProbe shows one thing clearly: empathy isn’t a soft skill – it’s an insight engine. By combining human-like understanding with intelligent follow-ups, inca SmartProbe: 

If your goal is to elevate depth, accuracy and clarity in modern research empathy isn’t optional, it’s essential. 

And inca’s empathetic AI chatbot makes it possible.

Conversational AI, Survey EngagementPhil Sutcliffe