How to upload research sources to Journey AI

Overview

Journey AI supports a range of file formats so you can bring in research from wherever it lives — reports, transcripts, presentations, and more. This article covers what formats are supported, where to upload files, and how to use them for insight mining.

Supported file formats

Format Extensions
PDF (text-based only) .pdf
Word document .doc, .docx
PowerPoint presentation .ppt, .pptx
Plain text .txt
CSV .csv
WebVTT (captions/transcripts) .vtt

You can upload up to 30 files at a time, and each file must be under 50 MB.

Note: General attachments elsewhere in TheyDo support a wider range of formats (images, videos, Excel, etc.), but only the formats listed above are processed by AI for content extraction and analysis.

Before you start

  • AI features must be enabled in your workspace to upload and process sources.
  • Only text-based PDFs are supported. Scanned or image-based PDFs may not process correctly.

Where to upload

You can upload sources in two places:

  • Data Hub — Files uploaded here are available across your entire workspace. All team members can access and use them in any journey.
  • Journey view — Upload directly within a specific journey for immediate use in that context. Files uploaded here will also appear in the Data Hub.

Regardless of where you upload, all sources are stored in the Data Hub for workspace-wide access.

Steps

  1. Go to the Data Hub or open a journey and navigate to the sources section.
  2. Click Upload and select your file.
  3. Wait for the file to finish uploading.
  4. Select a source type:
    • Interviews
    • Surveys
    • Feedback
  5. Click Save, then Next to continue to insight mining.
  6. Choose your insight mining preferences:
    • Select which lanes to populate (e.g., Pains, Gains, Needs).
    • Choose whether to create new insights or enrich existing ones.
  7. Click Mine insights.

TheyDo will process the file and generate insights with supporting quotes from your source.

Monitoring progress

  • In the journey view, a progress indicator will show that the file is being processed.
  • In the Data Hub, the source will show a Processing status until complete.
  • Once finished, insights will appear in your journey with quotes from the uploaded source.

Tips

  • VTT files work well for bringing in transcripts from platforms like Dovetail or meeting recordings from Microsoft Teams.
  • After upload, files can be downloaded from the Data Hub — but they'll be in TXT format (the processed version). The original file format is not retained.
  • Source types are used to categorize your research. More types will be added in future updates.