Let the AI ask follow-up questions

A dynamic follow-up is a question the AI writes on the spot about the answer someone just gave. A person who rates their onboarding 2 out of 5 might be asked "What was the hardest part of your first week?" — written from what they actually said, not from a script. It appears as the next page of the survey, is marked as an AI follow-up, and can be skipped.

Before you start

• A plan with AI survey drafting (Solo and up), switched on for the workspace.
• AI switched on for the workspace, under Settings → General → Ask Polzy and AI.
• The survey shown One per page — under Settings → Display options → How questions are shown (survey settings).
• A question of a type worth asking about: a text entry — Short text, Long text, Email, Phone, Number or Website —, a scale — Rating, Opinion scale, CSAT, CES or NPS —, a choice — Single select, Dropdown, Yes or no, Multi select or Picture selection — or a Ranking. A follow-up after a slider, a matrix, a date, a file, a consent box or contact details would have nothing to ask, so those types do not offer it.

Turn on follow-ups for a question

1. Open the survey in the builder and click the question.
2. Choose its Logic tab.
3. Turn on Dynamic follow-ups — "The AI asks about this answer, live".
4. Under How many it may ask, choose One question or Up to two.
5. If you like, fill in What to explore (optional): name what is worth learning, not the question itself — "find out which part of the process is slow". Up to 500 characters; the respondent never sees it.
6. Choose Save draft, or Save changes on a live survey.

Turn it on for the few questions where the reason matters most — a low rating, an NPS, an open "anything else?" — rather than for every question.

What the respondent sees

When someone answers a question with follow-ups and presses Next, Polzy asks the AI whether the answer deserves one. If it does, a new page appears before the next question:

• Marked as AI. "AI follow-up" stands where the question number would be, and under the question: "Asked because of your last answer. Optional — you can skip it."
• A written answer. The respondent types a reply, or moves on without one.
• Up to two. With Up to two, a second follow-up can come after the first, still about the original answer.
• Never a wait. If the AI has not answered within 7 seconds, or decides the answer already says enough, no follow-up appears and the survey simply goes on.

The follow-up is written in the language the respondent is answering in. The last question can have one too: it appears before the survey is submitted.

When no follow-up is asked

• All on one page. A follow-up needs a page of its own, so a survey shown all on one page never asks one. The Settings tab warns you when you choose it.
• The limit is reached. One or two per question, as you chose, and never more than 5 in one response.
• A safety concern. If any answer mentions harming oneself or someone else, the AI is not asked — not about that answer, and not about any later one.
• AI is unavailable. The plan does not include it, the workspace has AI switched off, or the organization is out of AI credits.
• The preview. The builder's preview never asks follow-ups. Open the published survey to see one.

Where the answers go

A follow-up and its answer are stored with the response, after the question they came from, and appear in the response like any other answer. The answer counts for the theme of the original question when Polzy reads the response (scoring settings); as written text, it gets no number of its own.

Privacy

• What the AI is sent. The survey's title and description, the question and its answer, up to 15 earlier answers for context (each cut to 600 characters), any follow-ups already asked about the same question, and your What to explore note. Never the person's name, and never your workspace's Polzy memory.
• Respondents are told. The survey's privacy notice says that AI may write an optional follow-up from their answer, that the answer and earlier ones are sent to the AI model, and that each such question is marked and can be skipped.
• Anonymous answers stay anonymous. On an anonymous survey, a follow-up keeps only the day it was asked, like the rest of the answer.

Polzy's AI provider, and choosing your own, are explained in AI insights.

Credits

Each time Polzy asks the AI for a follow-up — whether or not it writes one — it uses a little of the organization's monthly AI credits, shown under Organization settings → Usage. When the credits run out, no follow-ups are asked until they come back; the survey itself carries on as normal. See usage and limits.

Troubleshooting

• There is no Dynamic follow-ups card on the Logic tab. The question's type does not offer it, or the workspace does not have AI survey drafting (Solo and up).
• Follow-ups never appear. Check, in order: the survey is shown One per page; you are on the published survey, not the preview; the workspace has AI switched on; the organization has AI credits left.
• Some answers get a follow-up and others do not. That is by design: the AI skips an answer that already explains itself, and a follow-up that takes longer than 7 seconds is dropped.
• Dynamic follow-ups are not asked on a single page. The warning on the Settings tab: choose One per page to have them asked.