Listen Labs designs research studies, recruits participants and runs AI-moderated video, audio or text interviews, then turns the answers into reports, clips and slides for insights, UX and brand teams.
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Listen Labs is an AI market research platform that plans a study, finds participants, lets an AI moderator run the interviews and then turns the conversations into analysis and deliverables. The company frames the product as a way to learn what people think, why they think it and what to do about it, based on real human interviews. Interviews can run over video, audio or text.
Listen Labs is the trade name of Merlin AI, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and customers sign Order Forms with that company. It is sold as an enterprise service, with commercial terms set in the Order Form and the Master Service Agreement (MSA).
Listen Labs announced a Series B that it describes as bringing total funding to $100M, led by Ribbit Capital with Evantic, Sequoia Capital, Conviction and Pear VC participating. Independent technology reporting at the time put that round's valuation at $500 million and total capital at $100 million.
In September 2026, independent reporting that cited several people with knowledge of the matter said Listen Labs had signed a term sheet for a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation, and that the round never closed. The same report said Salesforce had recently held talks to buy Listen Labs for around $2 billion, adding that the talks were not finalized and might not result in a deal. These are ownership signals, not evidence of research quality.
Probing depth is set per question, while workspace rules apply to every study in the organization.
Listen Twins is a separate product that returns simulated answers instead of fielding a new study. Each twin is built from one-to-one interviews with the customer's audience and, in the company's words, is purpose-trained on the outcomes the customer cares about. When a twin lacks enough signal, it is designed to answer "I don't know" rather than guess.
These examples come from Listen Labs' own pages; case-study results are not independently verified.
Likely fit
Weaker fit
Teams build studies and read results in the Listen Labs web application.
Coverage numbers differ from page to page and are quoted here as stated.
No price list or per-interview rate was found on the pages checked in this round; Listen Labs pricing is set per customer in the Order Form. Feature pages show a Try for Free button that leads to account sign-up, without stating what free access includes.
The MSA (last updated Feb 6, 2026) sets these terms:
Independent technology reporting names Simile, Outset, Keplar and Aaru as competitors in AI customer research. The same reporting separates platforms that automate interviews with real people from startups such as Aaru and Simile that simulate human behavior and predict responses without interviewing anyone. Listen Labs' core product belongs to the first group, while Listen Twins adds a simulation option.
Listen Labs' own comparison pages are vendor claims, not neutral tests:
Statements about AI training differ in wording:
The AI code of conduct commits to not sharing any collected data with third parties. The Study Privacy Policy, last updated Feb 24, 2026, says study responses are shared with the Research Organization that commissioned the study. It also lists service providers such as cloud storage, which may not use the data for their own purposes. The same policy allows aggregated, de-identified or anonymized participant data to be used to improve the platform.
Storage and certification claims vary by page:
The Study Privacy Policy says Listen Labs does not knowingly collect data from children under 13 and seeks parental consent for ages 13 to 15 where required. The App Privacy Policy says the mobile app is not intended for anyone under 16. The Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy says studies are not designed to seek health information and the platform is not meant for medical records. Participants are asked for consent before a study to process any health information they choose to share.
On ownership, the MSA says the customer retains all rights, including intellectual property rights, in Customer Data. If any Output is not automatically the customer's intellectual property, the MSA says Listen Labs assigns it to the customer.
No public price was found. Fees are set in each customer's Order Form, renew automatically and are generally non-refundable.
Three official pages say no, though the Twins page describes twins improving with company data.
Figures range from 42 voice languages in the documentation to 120+ on the homepage.
Yes for the core product; Listen Twins is a separate simulation product built from earlier interviews.
