AI Research
AI Research (KI-Recherche) is for audiences no filter can find: people who did something visible on the open web. Open it with Research in the left navigation (full name AI Research). AI agents read job posts, community threads, press, company pages and, if you switch them on, Reddit and Twitter / X, and bring back matches with the evidence behind them. Every person it finds gets a free LinkedIn lookup to verify it's real, and a run never returns the same person twice.
Describe your target group#
Type your audience in your own words, best in English: the role, a publicly visible signal, and if possible an industry or region — for example "Heads of Sales at fintech startups in Germany that are hiring SDRs right now." A mic button next to the field lets you dictate instead of typing. Insert example fills in a complete brief. While the field is empty, six example cards under Try an example show signals that work well — Who's exhibiting (trade shows), Who's building sales (job posts), Who just started (new role), Who just raised (funding), Who's on stage (speakers) and Who's near you (local businesses) — each tagged Companies or Contacts to show what kind of match it returns. Clicking a card fills the field with its brief, which you can then adapt. You don't pick person vs. company mode yourself; the agent decides that from your text.
Below the field, "Collect contacts and stop at …" sets how many matches the run looks for: 5, 10 or 25 matches (25 is the default and the most one run collects at a time). To go further, click Resume on the run — also on a finished one — and it looks for up to 25 more new people each time, up to 200 matches per research in total. After that, start a new research with a different signal or region.
Watching a run#
Once you start a run you watch every step live: the left column lists your researches (running and finished), the middle shows what the agent is doing right now, and the right shows matches as they arrive. Every run works on the server ("Keeps running on the server, even with the window closed"), so it keeps going even if you close the tab or the window — for about an hour of unattended work before it pauses and waits for you to click Resume. In a workspace, researches are shared with the whole team: everyone sees them in the left column, and a run a colleague started shows their name (for example "by Anna"). Keep searching until the target (on by default) makes the agent try again when it stops early; it ends as soon as a round finds nothing new, or after 5 rounds at most. Stop ends a run at any time and keeps everything found so far.
Costs#
You pay for the real effort: the AI's reasoning steps, billed by usage, plus any paid sources you switch on under Unlock additional sources (paid): Reddit, Twitter / X and BuiltWith (a company's tech stack), each charged per search. There's no fee per match. Starting a research needs at least 1 credit, the counter next to the matches shows credits used live, and if your balance runs out the run spends what's left, stops, and keeps everything found; after topping up, click Resume. Every Resume is billed the same way, by the work it does. In a workspace, runs are charged to the workspace owner's balance, whoever starts them. Exact rates: "AI, research and import costs"; running out: "Not enough credits".
Matches and adding them to a list#
Matches appear as cards with name, role, company, the source and a line of evidence. Click a card to open the full profile in the same drawer Person Search uses, including Save in … to file it into a folder. Tick the matches you want and click Add to list at the bottom — pick an existing list (free) or create a new one (1 credit), same as everywhere else in ListPlus. Researches are kept for 7 days after you start them and show up on any device you sign in on. Add anything you want to keep to a list.
For advanced users#
The agent's LinkedIn lookup is always free and runs to verify a name before it's recorded as a match, which is also why the agent can't just invent people. Matches are de-duplicated by LinkedIn URL (or name + company when there is none), and a resumed run passes what it already found as an exclude list so it searches for genuinely new people instead of repeating itself. A run's auto-continue budget is separate from a manual Resume: an automatic continuation only fills the current target, while a manual click on Resume opens a new pass of up to 25 more matches (capped at 200 per research).
Related topics: price-list-ai-research-imports · not-enough-credits · person-search · categories-audience-database · background-runs · write-a-good-research-brief · what-is-a-workspace.
FAQ#
What is AI Research and when should I use it?#
AI Research finds people that no database filter can find: those who did something visible on the web, such as hiring for a role, complaining about a tool, raising money or speaking at an event. You describe the audience in a sentence and AI agents search the open web, Reddit and company sites, returning matches with evidence. Use Segment Search instead when your audience is defined by role, industry and company size.
How do I describe a good target group?#
Name the role, a publicly visible signal and, if possible, industry or region, best in English — for example "Heads of Sales at fintech startups in Germany that are hiring SDRs right now." The six example cards under Try an example (such as Who's exhibiting or Who just raised) fill the field with a proven brief, tagged Companies or Contacts, and Insert example fills in another one; you don't need to pick person vs. company mode, the agent infers it from your text.
What does an AI Research cost?#
You pay the actual effort, with no fee per match: the AI's reasoning steps are billed by usage, and the paid sources you tick under Unlock additional sources (paid) cost extra per search (Reddit 6 credits, Twitter / X 3, BuiltWith 0.25). Starting a run needs at least 1 credit, and the counter shows credits used live. If your balance runs out mid-run, the run uses what's left, stops and keeps every match; top up and click Resume to continue.
How long does a research take and can I close the window?#
Several minutes by default. Yes, you can close the window: every research runs on the server and keeps going for about an hour of unattended work, then pauses and waits for a manual Resume.
What does "Your AI" mean?#
Instead of ListPlus's own agent, you can hand the research to an AI assistant you already use, such as Claude or ChatGPT, through a private URL that reports matches back into the same cockpit. It's a separate way to run a research and is covered in its own help topic.
Why did the research find fewer people than I asked for?#
Because only people with real evidence on the web are returned — the agent never invents contacts. With Keep searching until the target on (the default), the agent keeps trying for up to 5 rounds until it reaches the number you picked (5, 10 or 25) or stops finding anything new. Broadening the signal or region, or turning on Reddit or Twitter / X as sources, usually finds more.
How many matches can one AI Research find?#
A run looks for 5, 10 or 25 matches, as picked in "Collect contacts and stop at …" (25 is the default and the maximum per pass). Click Resume on the run, even after it finished, to look for up to 25 more new people each time, up to 200 matches per research. Each Resume is billed by the work it does; beyond 200, start a new research with a different signal or region.
How do I get the matches into a list?#
Tick the matches you want and click Add to list at the bottom of the results panel, then pick an existing list (free) or create a new one (1 credit). You can also open a single match to view the full profile and save it to a folder from there instead.
Can I start a research on my phone?#
You can watch and review your researches on a phone. Starting a new research needs the desktop.
How long are my AI Research results kept?#
Researches are kept for 7 days after you start them, whether running, finished or stopped, and you see them on any device you sign in on. Add anything you want to keep to a list.
Can more than one research run at the same time?#
Yes — there's no fixed limit on how many researches run at once. Each run uses credits, so your credit balance is the only limit.