Silicon Valley has no shortage of AI hype, but one fast-growing startup is doing something refreshingly old-school: talking to customers. 

Only now, it’s doing it at a massive scale — on behalf of companies like Microsoft.

Listen Labs, a San Francisco-based AI company, has become an unlikely middleman between some of the world’s biggest brands and their users. The startup uses automated AI “interviewers” to run customer research, helping companies understand what people actually think about their products.

According to Forbes, Listen Labs has already conducted more than 1 million AI-led interviews for customers, including Microsoft, Sweetgreen, and Perplexity. The company recently raised $69 million in Series B funding, pushing its valuation past $500 million, Forbes reported. 

The round was led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from Evantic, Sequoia Capital, Conviction, and Pear VC, bringing the startup’s total funding to more than $96 million since it launched in April 2025.

From investor frustration to product belief

The idea gained strong backing from venture capitalist Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital. Malka has long used surveys to test investment ideas, but has grown tired of traditional methods that are slow, costly, and often deliver incomplete data.

After trying Listen Labs, Ribbit began using it regularly across its portfolio. Malka told Forbes: “Listen is the best tool to understand the customer.” He added, “Instead of having a bored person to ask the questions, this AI engine can engage with you, and modify the questions to go deeper.”

That experience ultimately led Ribbit to lead the funding round, according to Forbes.

Microsoft’s need for speed

For a tech giant like Microsoft, understanding its massive global audience used to be a slow, expensive grind. Traditionally, getting deep insights from customers took over a month.

Romani Patel, a senior research manager at Microsoft, says the old way often meant missing the boat. According to a case study by Listen Labs, Patel noted: “It takes 4 to 6 weeks to get to insights,” adding that, “By the time we get to them, either the decision has been made or we lose out on the opportunity to actually influence it.”

By using Listen Labs, Microsoft cut that wait time from weeks to just hours or days. Patel also highlighted the tool’s cost-effectiveness, stating, “If I want to do 100 interviews with customers, I’m able to do it at scale,” and “I can reach out to hundreds of users at one third of the cost.”

One of the most high-profile uses of the tech was for Microsoft’s 50th anniversary. The team used AI to collect video stories from users about their use of Copilot. What used to be a two-month project was completed in a short time.

Cutting through the ‘AI slop’

While the market for consumer research is crowded with veterans such as NielsenIQ and SurveyMonkey, Listen Labs CEO Alfred Wahlforss believes his company’s focus on talking to “real people” sets it apart.

Wahlforss told Forbes that in an era where AI can generate content instantly, knowing what humans actually want is more valuable than ever. 

“There’s so much AI slop out there and now that you can build so quickly with Claude Code and other tools it has become really important to understand what people want,” Wahlforss said. “We help you talk to real people.”

The platform allows users to respond in their own language via video, text, or voice, making the process feel more natural and inclusive than a standard digital form.

Also read: AI job interviewers are becoming more common, with tools that can ask candidates follow-up questions in real time.

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