AI Topics
Set up groups and topics so AI can make sense of open-text feedback
AI Topics helps you organize open-text feedback across your project. You set up groups and topics here—the AI handles the rest. When people leave written answers, it finds aspects (specific things they mention), maps them to your setup, and uses that for sentiment, summary reports, and Feedback Studio.
Where to find it
- Open your project in the encatch dashboard.
- Go to Settings.
- Under Global Settings, open AI Topics.
Don't see AI Topics? Ask your organization admin—you might need access, or the feature may not be turned on for your environment yet.
Page description: Create groups, organize topics, and control which group each topic belongs to. Aspects are managed automatically by the system.
How it fits together
Think of AI Topics in three layers:
| Level | Who sets it up | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Group | You | Big themes—like Product, Support, or Billing. |
| Topic | You | Smaller themes inside a group—like Checkout or Onboarding. |
| Aspect | AI | Specific things people actually say—like "slow loading" or "confusing layout". |
You only manage groups and topics on this page. Aspects show up on their own when the AI reads responses—you don't create or edit them here.
What you'll see on the page
Groups are listed in expandable sections. Each header shows the group name and how many topics are inside.
- Group — Add a new top-level group.
- + (on a group row) — Add a topic to that group.
- Pencil (on a group or topic) — Edit the name or description.
If you haven't created anything yet, you'll see No groups yet and a Create group button to get started.
Uncategorized
Uncategorized is a built-in group for topics that aren't in a custom group yet. New topics with no group land here, and topics you move out of a group end up here too. Drag them into the right group whenever you're ready—or leave them here if that works for you.
Create or edit a group
- Click Group, the + on a group row, or Create group if you're starting from scratch.
- Fill in the dialog:
- Name (required) — What you want to call this group.
- Description (optional) — A short note about what belongs here. It shows under the group name and helps the AI sort responses into the right place.
- Click Save.
Create or edit a topic
- Click + on the group where the topic should go (including Uncategorized).
- In the Add topic dialog:
- Name (required) — What you want to call this topic.
- Description (optional) — Shows under the topic on each card. You can write up to 8,000 characters.
- Click Save.
When responses are analyzed, the AI attaches aspects to your topics automatically.
Move topics between groups
Grab a topic by the handle on the left and drag it to another group. You can drop it on other topics or on an empty area that says Drop topics here.
After you move things around, a bar appears at the bottom:
- Discard — Undo your moves and go back to the last saved layout.
- Save changes — Keep the new arrangement.
Names and descriptions save right away when you edit them in a dialog. Only drag-and-drop moves need Save changes.
User and AI badges
Some topics show a small badge for how they were created:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| User | Someone on your team added it. |
| AI | The system created it while analyzing responses. |
Either way, you can rename topics and move them between groups like any other.
Where your setup shows up
Once groups and topics are in place, they feed into AI analysis across the project.
AI text insights on text questions
In the form builder, turn on AI text insights for long answer or short answer questions. The summary report then includes:
- Aspects & sentiment — Maps answers to your AI Topics. Each aspect gets a sentiment score and a salience score (basically, how much that aspect stands out). Salience also affects overall sentiment in summaries and per-response views.
- Word cloud — A quick view of the words that come up most often.
You can optionally pick Groups on the question to limit aspects & sentiment to certain groups only. Those groups are the ones you set up here.
Each time analysis runs, it uses 1 AI Credit.
Feedback Studio
Open Feedback Studio → AI Topic intelligence to browse groups, topics, and aspects for the whole project—how often they're mentioned, how people feel, and the responses behind them.
Summary report
Each text question's summary uses the same setup, filtered by your date range and any group filters on that question.
Who can use this
What you can do depends on your role. Some people can view groups and topics only; others can create, edit, and move them.
If AI Topics isn't enabled in your environment, the page shows Feature unavailable instead of the settings.
Tips
- Start small—pick a few groups that match how your team already talks about feedback (product areas, journeys, teams).
- Add descriptions where you can. They really help the AI place free-text answers in the right spot.
- Check Uncategorized now and then and drag stray topics where they belong.
- On text questions, leave Groups empty to use everything, or tick specific groups to narrow the analysis.
Best practices
- Use clear, consistent names so reports and Feedback Studio are easy to scan.
- Try not to duplicate the same theme in multiple groups—it splits your numbers.
- If you've moved topics around, hit Save changes before you leave the page.
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