Semi-structured interviews are a common method in qualitative research. However, conducting high-quality interviews is cognitively demanding and requires strong interviewing skills. To lower this bar, we propose InterFlow, an AI-powered visual scaffold that helps interviewers manage the interview flow and facilitates real-time data sensemaking. The system dynamically adapts the interview script to the ongoing conversation and provides a visual timer to track interview progress and conversational balance. It further supports information capture with three levels of automation: manual entry, AI-assisted summary with user-specified focus, and a co-interview agent that proactively surfaces potential follow-up points. A within-subject user study (N=12) indicates that InterFlow reduces interviewers' cognitive load and facilitates the interview process. Based on the user study findings, we provide design implications for unobtrusive and agency-preserving AI assistance under time-sensitive and cognitively-demanding situations.
@article{arxiv.2602.06396,
title = {InterFlow: Designing Unobtrusive AI to Empower Interviewers in Semi-Structured Interviews},
author = {Yi Wen and Yu Zhang and Sriram Suresh and Zhicong Lu and Can Liu and Meng Xia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.06396},
year = {2026}
}