Qualia can switch between arbitrary languages on request. So if a user says "koennen wir auf deutsch weitermachen?", Qualia will just switch to German without missing a beat. It's a pretty amazing skill, which can go a long way to improve the reach and inclusivity of conversational research. Lots of respondents talk multiple languages but may be more comfortable in one than another.

That's the theory, and often it works. It is less likely to work when using EU-only mode at QualiaInterviews for GDPR compliance and at the same time allowing respondents to use audio.

• The simplest solution is to send users language-specific invitation URLs. These can be pre-prepared for different groups of users or we can use generic invitations which offer a choice, so if they want to speak French, they click the French link.
• Alternatively, users can select a language from a dropdown. This is more general but a bit less intuitive.

Understanding how Qualia manages with different languages#

There are two things to think about:

• 🎤 the transcription service (necessary only if we enable the option for people to speak instead of type)
• 👩🏼‍🔬 the AI interviewer service which provides interviewer responses.

Bearing that in mind:

• The top 50 or so languages in terms of how present they are on the internet should all work fine for both transcription and interviewing.
• Major languages and their variants like Brazilian Portuguese should be fine for both.
• Many quite common languages like Kurdish would require us using dedicated services for both.
• For Arabic variants (beyond Modern Standard), the situation is more tricky, but probably similar for both. As I understand the current state of affairs the problem the models have with Arabic variants is more about cultural adaptation rather than the language itself. Voice transcription would probably require us to install a special model. But we can't guarantee this would work.

• Although Qualia does a very good job of detecting / guessing the respondent's preferred language and adapting to that, we get best results if we don't do that but tell it in advance which language will be used — but this means people who we expect to use, say, Portuguese are not then able to switch to, say, English.

• Are you a Language Capability Doubter?

  • Are you sceptical whether Qualia can effectively handle interviews in their target language or across multiple languages.
  • Qualia supports approximately the top 50 languages present on the internet, with particularly strong capabilities in major languages like Brazilian Portuguese.
  • For optimal results, we can configure Qualia to specifically operate in your target language rather than relying on automatic detection.
  • The system combines both transcription services (for spoken responses) and AI interviewer capabilities customized to your language needs.
  • Less common languages may require special considerations, we can evaluate feasibility for your specific language requirements.
  • Qualia's language capabilities allow for consistent interview quality across different markets, ensuring comparable data collection.

• Are you an AI Reliability Sceptic?

  • Are you sceptical about the reliability, quality, and authenticity of AI-conducted interviews compared to traditional human methods?
  • Qualia operates on the best available new generative AI technology, producing consistent and friendly interviews that eliminate human interviewer variation.
  • The system can be precisely configured to follow your interview protocol, ensuring methodological rigor.
  • We can provide demonstrations showing how Qualia handles different respondent types and interview scenarios.
  • The AI interviewer can adapt to respondent answers while maintaining your research objectives, combining flexibility with consistency.
  • Using Qualia allows you to conduct more interviews within your budget, significantly increasing sample size and explanatory power.