qualtrics assist
- Scope
- Conversation, model, product design
- Company
- Qualtrics
- For
- 56.3K+ CX analysts, monthly
- With
- UXR, PM, data science, product science
Personalizing how an AI assistant speaks to CX teams.
The tone menu in Qualtrics Assist’s original design wasn't wrong, but it just wasn’t ours.
Witty. Confident. Empathetic. Six options handed to users that never once looked to Qualtrics for wit. Our users were CX professionals at major companies, seeking deeper insights from customer feedback. Why would they choose a tone we didn’t have?
Other assistants offered options to customize tone, length, and formality. I saw the potential for personalization and later, to align the tool to users' brand voice.
I led end-to-end design across
content, conversation, and interaction.
I designed the voice and tone framework, personalization sketches, and AI response logic.
what we heard
The literature backed up a pattern I kept seeing anecdotally: an AI with no defined character undermines trust about as fast as one that oversells its own abilities (Dorton & Harper, 2022)Dorton, S. L., & Harper, S. B. (2022). A naturalistic investigation of trust, AI, and intelligence work. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 16(4), 222–236..
One of our users oversaw consumer insights and used Assist to make sense of customer feedback. In their words,
I need clear summaries to reduce cognitive load and help stakeholders understand the main issues. But the responses are often unclear or lack nuance—I have to ask, ‘in human speak, what are people saying about this category?’
AI guidelines from scratch
I ran our existing product voice against NN/g's four tone dimensions. If we weren't funny or irreverent elsewhere in the product, adding a settings option to be either was a trust risk.
Then I applied our voice and tone to the tool, defining formality and length too.
- Simplify concepts, words, and ideas
- Provide the right amount of info at the right time
- Ease navigation across Qualtrics Assist in a logical, manageable way
- Establish trust for customers
- Communicate candidly and ethically
- All info should be honest and research-backed
- Empower every user
- Make sure everyone can use Qualtrics Assist, regardless of background or skill
- Talk to users naturally
- Communicate concepts, words, and ideas the same in each formality
- Recognize success
- Focus on achievement and actions
- Emphasize that we’re celebrating them, not us
- Provide context and rationale
- Don’t assume; focus on informing
- Make it easy for them to take action
- Help them meet their goals
- Point out benefits of taking the desired actions
- Let them know why we’re giving them certain info, and anticipate any questions and needs
- Emphasize info that’ll improve their experience
- Explain our rationale and how to learn more
- Be aware if we're interrupting
- Pair CTAs with relevant info for easy decision-making
- Focus on the facts; avoid bias
- Provide solutions or next steps
- Refer to opportunities they might not know of
- Provide tools for completing future tasks or avoiding similar issues
- Highlight benefits to the person or organization
- Emphasize that we can work to meet their goals
- Focus on what they can do for success, no matter the outcome
- Anticipate questions, re: their goals
- Assure that we value their time and energy
- Explain why we need certain info
- Confirm privacy or security commitments
- Informal, but don’t use slang
- Friendlier, can use exclamation points
- Doesn’t adhere to strict grammar rules
- Straightforward, though still friendly
- Neutral greetings like “Hi”
- Avoid “Hey” / “Hey there” (too casual)
- Don’t use too many exclamation points
- Doesn’t adhere to strict grammar rules
- Straight to the point, but not particularly warm
- Be sparing with $10 words
- Definitely no exclamation points
- Adheres to strict grammar rules
- 1-2 sentences, with simpler structures
- Simple
- Simple + complex or compound
- <300 characters
- 2-3 sentences, mix of structures
- Simple + compound
- Simple + complex
- <400 characters
- 3-5 sentences, more complex structures
- Compound
- Compound + complex
- Compound-complex
- <500 characters
personalization sketches
what the team said
I sought feedback from the product scientist, lead designer, and a UX director, alongside a second research pass on how users reacted to informational vs. supportive tone in other AI features (automated summaries, AI-generated comments). The findings were consistent:
post-feedback changes
in the product
I wrote, designed, and prototyped the end-to-end interaction logic for this AI voice settings flow.
This prototype goes from customization to how the setting changed the output.
I really applaud her for her impact to Assist—which is pushing the designs forward [and] generally punching well above her level. Out of all the designers I have worked with, Sarah is by far the strongest designer, systems thinker and problem solver.
(re)setting guidelines to criteria
What shipped in 2024 was a style guide of traits. Revisiting it this year, I rebuilt it as a scoring rubric of three criteria with a four-point scale.
I’d left Qualtrics before Assist reached EA but supported its journey there with the UXR lead. About half of customers eagerly adopted the tool in their workflows, and they asked for more customizable settings and sentiment analysis. Both were opportunities I'd have loved to take on.
In retrospect, this work—more than any single guideline—is the throughline in how I think about AI voice today.