Hendrik Van Hove, co-founder of the Belgian AI startup Conveo, says his company's technology can deliver the depth of traditional focus groups while reaching a scale previously impossible for market researchers.
What happened?
In 1998 Steve Jobs warned that consumers often do not know what they want until they see a product. More than two decades later, Conveo is trying to answer that challenge with artificial intelligence. The firm launched an AI-driven interview moderator in 2024 after backing from the Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator. Its platform can analyse hundreds of video conversations in real time, detecting body language, tone of voice and recurring themes.
"If you are doing a thousand interviews a month, you can start asking questions like: what is changing? what are people talking about? what are the emerging trends?" Van Hove said.
The company raised a $50 million Series A round in September, led by investors including DST Global, Balderton Capital, Visionaries, 6 Degrees Capital and Y Combinator, bringing total funding to $55.8 million.
Why does it matter?
Traditional market research balances quantitative breadth with qualitative depth, but scaling the latter has always required human interviewers. Critics argue that AI cannot replicate the relational nuance of a live interview. Simon Shaw, director of behavioural science at Trinity McQueen, notes that AI "extracts information rather than having a relational exchange". Yet Van Hove points out that AI can remove human bias, encourage honest feedback and operate across languages without translation issues, making it attractive for multinational studies such as European firms researching Japanese consumers.
What happens next?
Van Hove has moved from Brussels to Manhattan to tap into U.S. capital, talent and client networks. He expects Conveo to expand its client base in both Europe and the United States, leveraging the AI moderator for larger, cross-border projects. The team, now 80 strong with offices in New York, San Francisco and London, aims to grow beyond the early stage, acknowledging that the company is only at about one percent of its envisioned journey.
While the technology is not intended to replace human researchers entirely, Van Hove believes the combination of AI speed and human insight will reshape how companies gather and act on consumer feedback.