New offering gives companies a way to measure how people actually relate to their conversational and agentic AI, beyond accuracy and technical performance
Auros Chief Strategy Officer Baran Erkel sees human feedback becoming a critical layer of the emerging agentic AI stack. Formerly known as UserTesting, Auros is expanding beyond traditional user research by connecting its network of human participants and customer insights directly into AI workflows through technologies such as Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Auros Chief Strategy Officer Baran Erkel joins the show to walk us through the strategic vision behind their recent high-profile rebrand from UserTesting to Auros.
UserTesting has rebranded as Auros, casting itself as “the human network behind AI” as it expands from customer-experience research into AI training and evaluation for large enterprises and the labs building frontier models.
UserTesting announced its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers — for both UserTesting and User Interviews platforms giving product, design, UX, and research teams direct access from within AI applications including ChatGPT, Claude, Figma Make, and other MCP-compatible clients.
UserTesting announced the launch of Advanced Targeting, a new capability that gives customers direct access to the User Interviews participant network from within the UserTesting platform. The release marks the first major product integration following UserTesting's acquisition of User Interviews, combining two industry-leading participant networks into a single research workflow.
A re-brand to Auros for the company formerly known as UserTesting and its 7-million strong community of UX testers, marking its expansion to provide human feedback in new fields including product research and AI training.
AI adoption is moving faster than most governance frameworks can keep up. Across departments, employees are increasingly turning to AI tools to write content, analyze information, automate tasks, and accelerate decision-making—often without formal approval or oversight. The result is the rise of Shadow AI: the use of AI systems that operate outside established organizational controls.
Forrester analysts joined the research community at UserTesting’s Crafted event in Seattle. The energy was palpable, with passionate researchers and designers eager to evolve their craft responsibly and effectively in the age of AI. A clear takeaway of the event was that building fast doesn’t matter if you’re not building the right thing. As AI makes creation easier, decisions grounded in research and insights become the true differentiator.
Most people are overusing AI and not making the most of it for the things that really matter. Johann Wrede, CMO at UserTesting, is teaching us to go beyond simple tasks and use Claude Code and Codex - his Shiny New Objects for data driven marketers.
Early adopters including AJ Bell and CarMax are using the UserTesting for Figma plugin to move from prototype to insight faster—embedding customer feedback directly into design workflows so decisions are informed earlier and risk is reduced before development
