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When people come to us, we often hear the same story. The platforms they’ve used are clunky. Outdated. Confusing. Like navigating a maze of tabs, jargon, and complexity. Just to run a simple study.

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That’s not what user testing should feel like.

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At Optimal, we believe finding insights should feel energizing, not exhausting. So we’ve been working hard to make our platform easier than ever for anyone – no matter their experience level – to run meaningful research, fast.

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We also know that the industry is changing. Teams want to do more with less, and platforms need to be able to empower more roles to run their own tests and find answers fast.

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As pioneers in UX research, Optimal has always led the way. Today, Optimal is more powerful, intuitive, and impactful than ever, built to meet the needs of today’s teams and future-proofed for what’s next.

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Our Vision is Built on Three Pillars

Access for All
We believe research should be accessible. Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or just getting started, you should be able to confidently run studies and uncover the “why” behind user behavior without facing a steep learning curve. All our latest plans include unlimited users, giving your whole team the ability to run research and find insights.

Speed to Insight
Time and budget shouldn't stand in your way. With smart automation and AI-powered insights, our tools help you go from question to clarity in days, not weeks.

Communicate with Impact
Great insights are only powerful if they’re shared. We help you translate data into clear, actionable stories that influence the right decisions across your team.

What’s New

We’re entering a new era at Optimal, one that’s even faster, smoother, and more enjoyable to use. 
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Here’s what’s new:

• A refreshed, modern homepage that’s clean, focused, and easier to navigate
• Interactive demos and videos to help you learn how to get set up quickly, recruit, and gather insights faster
• One-click study creation so you can get started instantly
• Streamlined navigation with fewer tabs and clearer pathways

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This year, we also launched our new study flow to reduce friction with study creation. It helps you easily visualize and understand the participant experience, from the welcome message to the final thank-you screen, every step of the way. Learn more about the Study Flow. 

Our refreshed designs reduces mental load, minimizes unnecessary scrolling, and helps you move from setup to insight faster than ever before.
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Haven’t Looked at Optimal in a While?

We’ve gone well beyond a new homepage and design refresh. Now’s the perfect time to take another look. We’ve made big changes to help you get up and running quickly and get more time uncovering the insights that matter.
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Using Optimal already? Log in to see what’s new.

New to Optimal? Start a free trial and experience it for yourself.
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This is just the beginning. We can’t wait to bring you even more. Welcome to a simpler, faster, more delightful way to find insights.

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In today's digital-first travel landscape, the one-size-fits-all approach to airline customer experience has become as outdated as paper tickets. Modern travelers expect experiences tailored to their unique preferences, past behaviors, and current context, from the moment they begin searching for flights through their return home.

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Why Personalization Matters in Aviation

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The stakes for effective personalization in the airline industry have never been higher:

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• Customer Expectations Are Soaring: Today's travelers are accustomed to Netflix suggesting exactly what they want to watch and Amazon knowing precisely what they want to buy. These same expectations now extend to their travel experiences.
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• Differentiation in a Commoditized Market: When price and schedule parity exists across carriers (which is increasingly common), personalized experiences become a crucial differentiator.
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• Revenue Optimization: Tailored offers consistently outperform generic ones, with personalized ancillary recommendations showing conversion rates up to 3-5x higher than standard offerings.

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The Personalization Journey: Touchpoints That Matter

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Pre-Booking: Inspiration and Search

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The personalization journey begins before the customer has even decided on a destination:

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Key Opportunities:

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• Destination recommendations based on past travel patterns and preferences
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• Fare alerts customized to traveler-specific price sensitivity and flexibility
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• Search results prioritized by known traveler preferences (direct flights, preferred carriers, ideal departure times)
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Implementation Example: A major European carrier increased conversion rates by 26% by implementing a machine learning algorithm that prioritized search results based on individual customer preferences derived from past booking behavior, rather than simply showing the lowest fares first.

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Booking Process: Tailored Offers

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The booking flow represents your prime opportunity to enhance the trip with personalized ancillaries:

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Key Opportunities:

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• Seat recommendations based on previous selections and traveler type
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• Targeted ancillary offers (lounge access for business travelers, extra baggage for leisure travelers)
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• Customized bundles based on trip context and passenger history

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Implementation Example: By analyzing past purchasing patterns and current trip context, one Asian carrier increased their ancillary revenue by 34% through highly targeted seat upgrade offers at specific, personalized moments in the booking flow.

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Pre-Trip: Contextual Communication

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Between booking and travel day, relevant, timely communication builds anticipation and reduces anxiety:

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Key Opportunities:

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• Destination content tailored to the traveler's interests
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• Pre-trip checklists adjusted for traveler type (business vs. family vs. solo)
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• Contextualized notifications based on traveler history and current trip parameters

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Implementation Example: A North American airline reduced customer service calls by implementing smart pre-trip communications that anticipated and addressed common questions based on the specific traveler profile, destination, and time of year.

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Airport Experience: Recognizing and Streamlining

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Recognition is the foundation of in-person personalization:

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Key Opportunities:

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• Fast-track services offered based on tight connection times
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• Lounge invitations triggered by delays affecting high-value customers
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• On-the-spot upgrade offers based on real-time inventory and customer value

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Implementation Example: By empowering their mobile app with location awareness, one carrier now sends personalized notifications and offers as passengers move through the airport, resulting in both higher satisfaction and increased last-minute ancillary purchases.

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In-Flight: Remembered Preferences

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The ultimate personalized experience remembers passenger preferences across journeys:

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Key Opportunities:

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• Meal and beverage preferences remembered from previous flights
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• Entertainment recommendations based on previous selections
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• Cabin crew equipped with passenger preference and history information

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Implementation Example: A Middle Eastern carrier equipped their cabin crew with tablets showing passenger preferences and history, enabling them to greet frequent flyers by name and proactively offer their usual preferences, significantly boosting NPS scores.

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Leveraging New Distribution Capability (NDC) for Personalization

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The industry's New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard represents a quantum leap forward for personalization capabilities. Unlike legacy distribution systems that primarily communicated price and schedule, NDC enables:

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• Rich Content Delivery: Visual showcasing of cabin features, amenities, and service differences
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• Dynamic Packaging: Real-time bundling of flight and ancillary components based on customer data
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• Attribute-Based Shopping: Allowing customers to search based on experience attributes rather than just price
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• Personalized Pricing: Offering specific fare packages to individual customers based on their value and history

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Personalization Program Maturity Model

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Implementing personalization isn't a one-time project but a capability that evolves in sophistication:

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Level 1: Basic Segmentation

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• Broad customer segments with basic differentiated treatment
• Limited to email marketing and obvious moments

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Level 2: Journey-Based Personalization

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• Distinct treatment across different journey phases
• Responsive to current trip context

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Level 3: Individual-Level Personalization

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• Real-time offers based on comprehensive customer data
• Cross-channel consistency in personalized treatment

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Level 4: Predictive Personalization

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• Anticipating needs before they're expressed
• Continuous optimization through machine learning

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Overcoming Personalization Challenges

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Despite its obvious benefits, implementing effective personalization presents challenges:

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Data Fragmentation Challenge: Customer data exists in siloed systems across reservations, loyalty, service, and digital platforms. Solution: Invest in a customer data platform (CDP) that unifies passenger data across touchpoints.

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Privacy Concerns Challenge: Increasing regulation around personal data usage. Solution: Build transparency into personalization efforts, allowing customers to understand and control how their data is used.

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Legacy Technology Challenge: Aviation's complex technology ecosystem wasn't built for personalization. Solution: Implement middleware layers that can orchestrate personalization without requiring full system replacement.

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Measuring Personalization Success

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Effective measurement of personalization efforts should include:

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1. Conversion Lift: Improvements in conversion rates for personalized vs. non-personalized experiences
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2. Ancillary Attachment: Increased ancillary revenue per passenger
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3. Experience Metrics: Improvements in satisfaction scores for personalized touchpoints
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4. Engagement Depth: Increased app usage, website return visits, and email open rates

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Leveraging Optimal to Enhance Personalization Strategies

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Implementing effective personalization requires deep insights into traveler preferences, behaviors, and pain points. Optimal's suite of UX research tools offers airlines powerful capabilities to develop and refine personalization strategies:

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Card Sorting for Preference Mapping

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Optimal's card sorting tool allows airlines to understand how different customer segments categorize and prioritize service elements and amenities:

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• Closed Card Sorts can validate your personalization categories and preference groupings
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• Open Card Sorts help discover unexpected ways customers mentally organize travel options
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• Hybrid Card Sorts refine existing personalization frameworks with customer input

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Application Example: One North American carrier used card sorting to discover that their business travelers categorized amenities differently than expected, leading to a reorganization of their premium offering structure and a 28% increase in premium ancillary attachment.

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Tree Testing for Navigation Optimization

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As personalized offerings grow more complex, ensuring customers can easily find what matters to them becomes crucial:

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• Validate navigation structures for different customer segments
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• Test how effectively users can find personalized options
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• Compare findability metrics across different traveler profiles

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Application Example: A major European airline discovered through tree testing that their loyalty members struggled to find personalized offers within their app, leading to a navigation redesign that increased offer visibility by 45%.

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First-Click Testing for Conversion Path Optimization

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Optimal's first-click testing helps airlines optimize the critical initial interactions that drive personalization adoption:

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• Test where different user segments naturally look for personalized options
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• Compare click patterns between different passenger types
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• Identify optimal placement for personalization features

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Application Example: Through first-click testing, an Asian carrier discovered that leisure travelers were overlooking personalized destination content, leading to a redesign that increased engagement with tailored destination information by 67%.

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Qualitative Research Integration

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Optimal's research repository capabilities allow airlines to combine quantitative findings with qualitative insights:

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• Create comprehensive passenger personas based on combined research methods
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• Track personalization preferences across different research studies
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• Build a centralized knowledge base of passenger preference insights

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By systematically applying Optimal's research tools to personalization challenges, airlines can move beyond intuition-based personalization to evidence-driven tailored experiences that genuinely resonate with travelers.

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Conclusion: From Mass Transit to Personal Journey

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The airline that succeeds in personalization transforms from being perceived as a mass transportation provider to a curator of individual travel experiences. While the aircraft itself may carry hundreds, each passenger can feel that their journey was crafted specifically for them.

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In an industry where operational parity is common, the emotional connection created through recognition and relevance becomes the defining factor in customer choice and loyalty. The airlines that master the art and science of personalization will not just survive but thrive in aviation's next era.

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As AI transforms the UX research landscape, product teams face an important choice that extends far beyond functionality: how to integrate AI while maintaining the security and privacy standards your customers trust you with. At Optimal, we've been navigating these waters for years as we implement AI into our own product, and we want to share the way we view three fundamental approaches to AI integration, and why your choice matters more than you might think.

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Three Paths to AI Integration

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Path 1: Self-Hosting - The Gold Standard 

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Self-hosting AI models represents the holy grail of data security. When you run AI entirely within your own infrastructure, you maintain complete control over your data pipeline. No external parties process your customers' sensitive information, no data crosses third-party boundaries, and your security posture remains entirely under your control.

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The reality? This path is largely theoretical for most organizations today. The most powerful AI models, the ones that deliver the transformative capabilities your users expect, are closely guarded by their creators. Even if these models were available, the computational requirements would be prohibitive for most companies.

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While open-source alternatives exist, they often lag significantly behind proprietary models in capability. 

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Path 2: Established Cloud Providers - The Practical, Secure Choice 

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This is where platforms like AWS Bedrock shine. By working through established cloud infrastructure providers, you gain access to cutting-edge AI capabilities while leveraging enterprise-grade security frameworks that these providers have spent decades perfecting.

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Here's why this approach has become our preferred path at Optimal:

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Unified Security Perimeter: When you're already operating within AWS (or Azure, Google Cloud), keeping your AI processing within the same security boundary maintains consistency. Your data governance policies, access controls, and audit trails remain centralized.

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Proven Enterprise Standards: These providers have demonstrated their security capabilities across thousands of enterprise customers. They're subject to rigorous compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA) and have the resources to maintain these standards.

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Reduced Risk: Fewer external integrations mean fewer potential points of failure. When your transcription (AWS Transcribe), storage, compute, and AI processing all happen within the same provider's ecosystem, you minimize the number of trust relationships you need to manage.

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Professional Accountability: These providers have binding service agreements, insurance coverage, and legal frameworks that provide recourse if something goes wrong.

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Path 3: Direct Integration - A Risky Shortcut 

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Going directly to AI model creators like OpenAI or Anthropic might seem like the most straightforward approach, but it introduces significant security considerations that many organizations overlook.

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When you send customer data directly to OpenAI's APIs, you're essentially making them a sub-processor of your customers' most sensitive information. Consider what this means:

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• User research recordings containing personal opinions and behaviors
• Prototype feedback revealing strategic product directions
• Customer journey data exposing business intelligence
• Behavioral analytics containing personally identifiable patterns

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While these companies have their own security measures, you're now dependent on their practices, their policy changes, and their business decisions. 

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The Hidden Cost of Taking Shortcuts

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A practical example of this that we’ve come across in the UX tools ecosystem is the way some UX research platforms appear to use direct OpenAI integration for AI features while simultaneously using other services like Rev.ai for transcription. This means sensitive customer recordings touch multiple external services:

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1. Recording capture (your platform)
2. Transcription processing (Rev.ai)
3. AI analysis (OpenAI)
4. Final storage and presentation (back to your platform)

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Each step represents a potential security risk, a new privacy policy to evaluate, and another business relationship to monitor. More critically, it represents multiple points where sensitive customer data exists outside your primary security controls.

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Optimal’s Commitment to Security: Why We Choose the Bedrock Approach

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At Optimal, we've made a deliberate choice to route our AI capabilities through AWS Bedrock rather than direct integration. This isn't just about checking security boxes, although that’s important,  it's about maintaining the trust our customers place in us.

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Consistent Security Posture: Our entire infrastructure operates within AWS. By keeping AI processing within the same boundary, we maintain consistent security policies, monitoring, and incident response procedures.

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Future-Proofing: As new AI models become available through Bedrock, we can evaluate and adopt them without redesigning our security architecture or introducing new external dependencies.

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Customer Confidence: When we tell customers their data stays within our security perimeter, we mean it. No caveats. 

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Moving Forward Responsibly

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The path your organization chooses should align with your risk tolerance, technical capabilities, and customer commitments. The AI revolution in UX research is just beginning, but the security principles that should guide it are timeless. As we see these powerful new capabilities integrated into more UX tools and platforms, we hope businesses choose to resist the temptation to prioritize features over security, or convenience over customer trust.

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At Optimal, we believe the most effective AI implementations are those that enhance user research capabilities while strengthening, not weakening, your security posture. This means making deliberate architectural choices, even when they require more initial work. This alignment of security, depth and quality is something we’re known for in the industry, and it’s a core component of our brand identity. It’s something we will always prioritize. 

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Ready to explore AI-powered UX research that doesn't compromise on security? Learn more about how Optimal integrates cutting-edge AI capabilities within enterprise-grade security frameworks.

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