SurveyMonkey is betting AI can make surveys useful again

SurveyMonkey is getting one of its biggest revamps since its founding in 1999. Much of the upgrade, billed as Today’s SurveyMonkey, is designed to make it easier to use a range of AI tools to create and interpret surveys. But CEO Eric Johnson says the company, which promotes itself as “the world’s most popular survey platform,” remains as focused as ever on helping customers collect feedback from actual people. That comes as a growing number of startups offer AI tools for extracting consumer or employee sentiment from existing data or even generating synthetic survey data based on artificial intelligence models. “I think that more than ever, the feedback from people—from humans—matters in making good decisions,” Johnson says. [Image: SurveyMonkey] Along with a general brand refresh, streamlined interface, and enhanced home page featuring recommendations for what to tackle next, Today’s SurveyMonkey includes upgraded versions of the company’s tools for crafting surveys via AI prompts. Users can quickly draft questionnaires using a mix of plain-language directions to the AI and traditional editing tools. AI can also help analyze responses as they come in, for example by highlighting…