In short: For agencies, customer research is both a deliverable and a way to win pitches, but traditional qualitative work is slow, labour-heavy and hard to run for several clients at once. AI-moderated interviews change the economics: one strategist can field studies for multiple clients in parallel, hear from real customers in days, and keep margins intact. Koji is built for this. It runs voice and text interviews in 28 languages, recruits participants for you, gives each client its own workspace and access controls, and on Enterprise puts the client's brand on every interview.
Why research is an agency growth lever in 2026
The insights industry is large and moving fast. ESOMAR's latest Global Market Research figures put it at about $153 billion, with research software growing 11.5% a year, faster than traditional market research at 4.8% (ResearchWorld). Clients are buying insight in new ways, and much of that spend is shifting toward software.
Agencies have already adopted AI for their own work. In an April 2025 survey of senior agency staff by Basis, 98% of agencies said they use generative AI in their workflows and nearly 40% use it every day (Basis). The pressure cuts both ways: in a 2025 Funnel survey reported by MarketingProfs, 72% of agency marketers said they expect generative AI to replace some services they currently sell to clients (MarketingProfs). Research is one of the places an agency can turn that threat into a new line of revenue rather than a lost one.
Researchers themselves are moving too. Qualtrics' 2025 market research trends study found that 89% of researchers were using AI tools regularly or experimentally (Research Live). Agencies that can offer fast, evidence-backed customer insight alongside strategy and creative win on speed, margin and credibility.
The problem with traditional agency research
Most agencies run into the same constraints:
- It is slow. Recruiting, scheduling, moderating, transcribing and coding a qualitative study takes weeks, often longer than the client timeline.
- It is expensive. Moderator and analyst hours eat into project margins, so research is the first thing cut from scope.
- It does not scale across clients. Running depth interviews for five clients at once means five times the manual work.
- It is hard to keep separate. Client files, recordings and reports end up in shared drives where anyone on the team can see everything.
- It is inconsistent. Different moderators ask questions differently, which makes cross-study comparison unreliable.
The result is that too many agencies pitch strategy and creative on instinct and hope it lands.
How AI-moderated research changes agency economics
An AI moderator runs interviews around the clock, asks every participant the same core questions, and follows up when an answer is thin. Transcripts are themed automatically and the report is generated for you. Because the interviewer behaves the same way every time, studies are comparable across clients and over time (AI vs human moderators).
For an agency, that means:
- Insight in days, not weeks, fast enough for a sprint or a pitch cycle.
- Parallel studies for several clients without adding headcount.
- Better margins, because the platform does the moderation and first-pass analysis.
- A product you can sell: research as a standalone offer or an add-on to every engagement.
How agencies use Koji across the client lifecycle
1. Winning the pitch
Run a short study on the prospect's audience before the pitch and walk in with real quotes and a structured report instead of assumptions. If the prospect has no customer list to share, describe the audience in Koji and recruit them from the panel.
2. Brand and messaging strategy
Test positioning and value propositions with the target audience, mixing open questions with structured ones such as ranking and single choice, so you can show both what people prefer and why.
3. Creative and concept testing
Run concept testing on campaign routes, names or designs. Ask for reactions in the participant's own words, then have them rank the options in the same conversation.
4. Product and UX work
Ground design decisions in discovery interviews and feed the findings straight into the build.
5. Retainers
Turn research into a recurring deliverable: monthly voice-of-customer pulses, churn interviews or brand tracking that prove value between big projects. Duplicating a study copies its brief and settings into a fresh draft, so a proven study design can be reused for the next wave or the next client without rebuilding it.
What makes Koji a fit for agencies specifically
A workspace per client, paid in one step
Create a shared workspace from the workspace switcher, name it, choose the Insights or Interviews plan and check out without leaving Koji. Nothing is created until payment succeeds, so you never end up with half-set-up client spaces. Interviews workspaces include 3 seats, and extra seats cost €15 a month (€150 a year) each, and Enterprise includes 10 seats. Pending invites hold a seat, so you can see exactly who is coming before they accept.
Client-safe access controls
Inside a workspace, you can keep a study or folder open to everyone or restrict it to named people, each with Viewer, Editor or Full access. Build a group once, for example "Acme client team", and share a study with the whole group in one step. Viewers get the full study read-only, so clients can follow along without changing anything, and workspace owners and admins always keep access. See roles and permissions.
The client's brand on every interview (Enterprise)
On Enterprise plans, create a brand theme with the client's logo, colours, corner style and font, with a live preview, then pick that theme for each study. Participants see the client's brand on the welcome screen and throughout text and voice interviews. Keep one theme per client. See customizing branding.
Recruitment and screening built in
Use the client's own customer list, or open the Panel recruit tab, describe the audience and see the cost before you launch, with reach across 130+ countries. Credits are set aside at launch and anything unused goes back to your balance. Panel recruitment is available on paid plans (panel recruitment). Add screening questions so people outside the brief are turned away before the interview starts.
Multi-market studies
Offer up to 28 languages per study. Each participant chooses theirs on the welcome screen, and every answer lands in one report, which makes multi-country work far simpler (multilingual research).
Reports clients can open
Publish a report and share it by link, so a client sees themes, quotes and charts without a login (publishing and sharing reports).
Predictable pricing for project quotes
Start free with 10 credits and no card. Insights is €29 a month with 29 credits, Interviews is €79 a month with 79 credits, and Enterprise starts from €500 a month. A text interview costs 1 credit and a voice interview 3 credits, extra credits are €1 on every plan, and low-quality conversations are never charged. That makes per-project costs easy to model in a proposal.
A simple agency playbook
- Scope the question with the client: discovery, messaging, concept test or tracking.
- Set up the client's workspace or group and, on Enterprise, their brand theme.
- Brief Koji on the research goals and let it draft the study, including screening questions.
- Preview the interview yourself by text or voice. Previews are free.
- Field it to the client's list or the panel, in one language or many.
- Share the report link and turn the findings into your deliverable.
- Duplicate the study for the next wave and make research a recurring line item.
The bottom line
Research used to be the slowest, most expensive part of an agency's process and the first thing cut under deadline pressure. With AI-moderated interviews, client workspaces and built-in recruitment, it becomes the fast, high-margin, pitch-winning part. Agencies that put real customer voice into every engagement will out-deliver and out-pitch those still working on instinct.
Ready to deliver client insight in days? Start free with Koji with 10 credits and no card, set up your first client workspace, and run a study before your next pitch.
