Maya AI by Merren: AI-led qualitative research at scale

Merren launched Maya AI, an AI-powered qualitative interviewer created by researchers Monalisa and Sumit Saxena after two decades in the research industry. Maya is positioned as a tool that can conduct qualitative interviews continuously, handling the depth of human moderation at the speed and scale that traditional qual research cannot match.

The origin story addresses a real gap: businesses make decisions in days, but traditional qualitative research takes weeks or months. Maya is designed to close that timeline without sacrificing the probing and emotional understanding that make qualitative research valuable. The tool conducts interviews, follows up on ambiguous answers, and captures emotional metrics alongside factual responses.

From 2026 onward, Merren describes Maya’s mission as “democratizing depth,” making qualitative research accessible anytime and anywhere. For research teams evaluating AI moderation tools, Maya represents a purpose-built alternative to adapting general AI chatbots for interview moderation, though the critical question of how well AI probing compares to experienced human moderators remains an area for careful evaluation.