Avatar Interview
UniTrento – Sociologia
Academic researchers, public institutions, research centers, institutes of psychology/sociology, economists, companies, and statistical agencies.
Project TypeA qualitative interview platform with an intelligent conversational avatar based on LLMs (Large Language Models), integrated into immersive VR environments.
ScopeQualitative research, data collection, social experimentation.
Avatar-Interview is a cutting-edge digital solution that redefines the way qualitative interviews are conducted. Instead of a human interviewer, a virtual intelligent avatar converses with the participant in an immersive, controlled, and customizable environment. The result is a smooth experience that delivers high-density qualitative data within a controllable, traceable, and optimizable system. The project is designed for any organization seeking to improve the quality, scalability, and replicability of its qualitative and statistical studies.
The world of qualitative and statistical research often faces objective limitations: difficulty in replicating experiences, unintentional interviewer bias, lack of standardized contexts, and challenges in engaging large and diverse samples. For Digital Mosaik, the challenge was to design, for UniTrento – Sociology, a platform that ensures methodological consistency, high customization, and scalability—without stripping away the human element of the interview. The goal was to provide a technological alternative that does not replace but rather enhances traditional qualitative data collection methods.
Avatar-Interview is a data-driven system integrated into immersive VR environments, but also accessible from traditional devices, where the participant interacts with a virtual interviewer avatar animated in a 3D scenario, receiving real-time questions. The researcher configures the virtual interviewer’s personality and style, sets up sessions from a dashboard, and monitors and analyzes results through exportable outputs (text, metadata, timecode).
Il progetto
The strength of Avatar-Interview lies in its ability to standardize without oversimplifying. Each researcher can model the interviewer to match their target audience: gender, age, voice tone, clothing, level of formality, and even emotional approach.
This makes the platform an adaptive, modular tool suited for both exploratory studies and structured tests, usable in academic, corporate, or educational settings.
Thanks to its scalability, it enables large volumes of interviews to be managed while maintaining methodological consistency. This opens qualitative research to new data-driven models that combine interpretive depth with replicable rigor.
Inside the experience
Once the session starts, the participant enters an immersive environment where they are welcomed by a realistic avatar. They can respond vocally, in natural language, while the avatar conducts the conversation based on a dynamic script. The researcher can choose whether to allow the AI free interaction or to guide the conversation with pre-set questions. Interviews can take place in neutral settings (such as an office) or simulate specific situations: a living room, a meeting room, a public space.
Some objects in the environment are interactive, allowing for behavioral or cognitive reaction testing in semi-structured contexts. Once the session ends, the data is stored and made available for analysis.
About the design
The design of Avatar-Interview balances realism and accessibility. The interface is built for a smooth experience, with expressive, responsive avatars, well-crafted environments, and a highly professional yet intuitive user experience. The end user moves within a coherent digital space, free from distractions and optimized for dialogue. The entire system has been designed to be cross-platform: usable with VR headsets for a fully immersive experience, but equally accessible from PCs, tablets, or laptops.
This versatility makes Avatar-Interview a transformative tool, ready to revolutionize qualitative research—from data collection to analytical reporting—across multiple fields: psychology, marketing, training, education. Avatar-Interview is not just a project; it is a glimpse into the future of human–machine integration.