First in Spain: Conversational AI Transforms Public Opinion Polling with CEMOP

A groundbreaking milestone in demographic research using voice artificial intelligence

Madrid, February 2026 - We have successfully completed a pioneering pilot with the Murcian Centre for Public Opinion Studies (CEMOP) at the University of Murcia for their winter barometer survey, setting a new standard in Spain’s phone survey landscape.

This project marks the first time conversational AI voice technology has been deployed at scale for demographic surveys in Spain and represents one of the earliest implementations across Europe, far exceeding initial expectations and demonstrating that our AI-powered phone survey software can coexist with the most demanding methodological rigor.

About CEMOP and the Region of Murcia

The Centre for Public Opinion Studies of the Region of Murcia (Centro de Estudios Murciano de Opinión Pública - CEMOP) is a leading opinion research institute affiliated with the University of Murcia. The Region of Murcia, located in southeastern Spain along the Mediterranean coast, is home to 1.5 million people and is known for its agricultural production and growing tech sector.

CEMOP, under the direction of Dr. Ismael Pérez Crespo, is renowned throughout Spain for its methodological excellence and willingness to embrace technological innovation in social research. Their barometers are widely respected benchmarks for understanding public opinion in the region.

From Traditional IVR to Natural Conversation

For years, telephone surveys have been dominated by rigid IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems that frustrated respondents. Our conversational AI technology completely transforms this paradigm, offering an experience that many participants cannot distinguish from human conversation.

“Once people hear a real call, doubts disappear,” states Javier Carmona, CEO and founder of Sonalyx. “The barrier is no longer technological. It’s cultural. The biggest challenge is getting people to dare to try it.”

Results That Speak for Themselves

The pilot conducted during January processed 154 complete surveys for CEMOP’s winter barometer, representing 20% of total interviews. The results have been compelling:

• 20% reduction in refusal rate compared to human interviewer surveys
• Field time reduced from 15 days to 2 days while maintaining data quality
• Improved accuracy by eliminating human transcription errors
• Complete recording of all conversations for subsequent qualitative analysis

Dr. Ismael Pérez Crespo, director of CEMOP, highlights the innovative nature of the project: “CEMOP is always at the forefront of new technologies. This is the first time this has been done in Spain. We have incorporated this artificial intelligence that is truly almost human conversational intelligence that interacts with respondents.”

How Our Technology Works

Our AI voice agents are capable of:

• Maintaining natural real-time conversations without rigid scripts
• Detecting silences, hesitations, and tone changes in the respondent
• Adapting and rephrasing questions based on conversation context
• Recording responses with automatic precision
• Autonomously rescheduling calls when respondents are unavailable

During a live television demonstration, Pérez Crespo showed how the system works in real-time: “You’ve caught me in a TV interview. Can you call me tomorrow, please?” he told Ana, the virtual agent. The response was immediate and natural: “I understand perfectly. I would appreciate if you could participate at another time. Have a good day.”

“The system directly reschedules the interview, the call, to tomorrow at the same time,” explains Carmona. “If I say tomorrow at 10 or in two hours, the system automatically understands, comprehends, and that’s what’s most interesting.”

Unprecedented Scalability

The scaling capacity of this automated telephone survey software opens new possibilities for opinion research:

• Capacity to launch between 30,000 to 100,000 simultaneous calls
• Real-time results, with automatic analysis generated within 3 seconds after each call ends
• Complete studies that previously took weeks can now be completed in hours

“We could perfectly well start the surveys that afternoon and, by the time of the evening news, be providing results,” notes Pérez Crespo about the rapid response capabilities for breaking news events.

Methodological Rigor Is Non-Negotiable

Despite automation, CEMOP maintains the same quality standards as traditional surveys:

• Review of 10% of all interviews conducted with AI
• Complete recording of all conversations for audit purposes
• Ability to listen to any specific interview if questions arise
• Validated and transparent methodology

“We review the same way,” confirms Pérez Crespo. “The surveys are also recorded. We can listen to them again, we have the recordings, we can hear the recording in case there has been any problem.”

A Paradigm Shift in Work

Carmona is clear about the employment impact: “Voice artificial intelligence is not here to replace people, it’s here to eliminate work that doesn’t add value. A human call, analysis, understanding of data, will always have to be done by a person. But all these mechanical types of work like ‘hey, I call, I launch 35 questions and hang up’ don’t make sense.”

The CEMOP director adds: “It enables many more things, because you have to keep in mind that it’s not just about recording like a great interviewer, the interview is completely recorded to be able to do other analyses, for example, qualitative ones.”

The Future of Telephone Surveys

This pilot opens doors to multiple applications beyond public opinion surveys:

• Post-sales satisfaction surveys for companies
• Quick and economical market research studies
• Quality surveys in customer service
• Qualitative research through word cloud analysis and latent discourse
• Urgent polling in response to current events

Carmona concludes with a reflection on the transformative impact of this technology: “The real revolution of AI is not that it speaks, it’s that it understands and converts conversations into decisions.”

Want to Learn More?

This project with CEMOP is just the beginning. Our conversational AI voice platform is available for companies and organizations looking to transform their phone survey processes, satisfaction studies, customer service, and much more.

If you’re interested in exploring how we can help you obtain quality data quickly and at scale, contact us.

About CEMOP

The Murcian Centre for Public Opinion Studies (CEMOP) at the University of Murcia is a benchmark in opinion research in Spain, known for its methodological rigor and innovative capacity. Under the direction of Dr. Ismael Pérez Crespo, CEMOP has been a pioneer in incorporating new technologies in the field of telephone surveys in the public sector.

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Key Benefits of Our AI Phone Survey Platform

• Natural conversation flow that respondents trust
• 24/7 availability with unlimited concurrent calls
• Real-time data processing and analysis
• Multilingual support for global research
• GDPR compliant with full audit trail
• Cost-effective compared to traditional CATI systems
• Rapid deployment for time-sensitive studies

Whether you’re conducting market research surveys, customer satisfaction studies, or public opinion polling, our conversational AI platform delivers the scalability and quality your organization needs.