Programming skip logic, quotas, rotations, and piping into a questionnaire is called scripting — traditionally the slowest, most specialized part of getting a study into field. Here's what it actually involves, what it costs today, and how an AI agent now does it in minutes instead of days.
A questionnaire document — the version a client signs off on — is just text. Scripting is the step that turns it into a survey that actually runs: every branch, every counter, every rotation has to be programmed by hand or generated correctly. That typically covers:
| A programmer scripts it | Wavefield's agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Turnaround | Days to weeks, depending on programmer or agency availability and queue | Minutes — upload a brief, the agent programs it in the same session |
| Cost | Billed separately — commonly a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on complexity | Included in the $99–$499 project price, no separate scripting fee |
| Skill required | A dedicated survey programmer fluent in the platform's scripting language | None — write a plain-English brief or upload an existing questionnaire document |
| Making changes | Change requests go back through the programmer or agency's queue | Chat with the agent or edit directly in the visual editor — same document, no re-briefing |
| What's supported | Depends on the platform and the programmer's skill — logic, quotas, and piping vary by shop | Skip logic, quotas, randomization, piping, and translations generated directly from the brief |
Generation runs in passes rather than one giant request: first an outline of blocks and question counts, then the real questions and logic generated block by block, then quotas and embedded data as a final pass. Every output is validated against the same schema the rest of the platform enforces — if something doesn't parse, the agent retries with the validation error until it does.
Scripting (also called questionnaire programming) is the technical work of turning a written questionnaire into a functioning survey — skip and display logic, quotas, randomization and rotation, piping answers between questions, and translations. It's traditionally done by a dedicated survey programmer using a platform's own scripting language or tools like Confirmit, Decipher, or Voxco.
It varies by complexity and who does it — an in-house research-ops hire, a freelance programmer, or a full-service agency's scripting team. Quotes commonly range from a few hundred dollars for a short, simple questionnaire to several thousand for a long one with heavy branching, quotas, and multiple languages, often billed hourly or as part of a larger project fee.
Yes, within the same guardrails a human programmer would use. Wavefield's agent reads your brief or an existing Word-doc questionnaire and builds it in passes — first an outline, then the actual questions and logic block by block, then quotas and embedded data — validating every step against the same schema the platform enforces everywhere else, so it can't produce logic the platform itself couldn't run.
You fix it the same way you'd fix anything else in the platform — by chatting with the agent ("add a quota on region") or editing directly in the visual editor. Both write to the same underlying survey document, so nothing gets out of sync, and every change is versioned.
See the numbers a study needs with the sample size calculator, or how respondents actually get selected in quota sampling vs. random sampling.
Upload your brief or an existing questionnaire — the agent programs it the same session, no separate scripting fee.
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