Your guide to keeping up with AI trends in user research
05/25/2026Get acquainted with AI or get left behind.
That seems to be the consensus these days across all industries. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to boom, we want to explore how the technology is impacting the user experience (UX) space. According to Maze’s 2026 Future of User Research report, two out of three researchers are using AI at some point in their process. With such a significant number, it’s crucial to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest in artificial intelligence.
But how can researchers keep up when everything seems to be moving at the speed of light?
Have no fear; we’ve compiled some of the top resources available to you in the Rosenverse to help keep up with AI trends in user research. So now you don’t have to worry about getting left behind. View all the resources in this post here.
The highlights
AI is your research partner—not your replacement
Since the first whispers of ChatGPT came onto the scene, we at Rosenfeld have kept an ear to the ground for how artificial intelligence has been reshaping the research experience.
In 2023, we hosted a panel moderated by Dr. Jamika D. Burge, How UX researchers can partner with (and not be replaced by) AI, in which panelists spoke to their own lived experiences and expanded on the most crucial actions researchers could take at this turning point in UX. Alexandra Jayeun Lee of Microsoft said that “learning prompt engineering will make us better researchers in the same way coding helped designers.”
Since the beginnings of the AI boom, companies everywhere have been seeking out ways to incorporate the newest technology—much to the behest of some employees. How can we implement AI into our work without it replacing us? Will AI take away jobs like predicted when it first exploded? (Spoiler: Not really). When it comes to user research, innovation involves utilizing AI in a way that is a research partner, rather than a shortcut or a replacement.
“Learning prompt engineering will make us better researchers in the same way coding helped designers.”
– Alexandra Jayeun Lee
When used as a tool, AI has the potential to do lots of heavy lifting and ease burdens of things such as transcription, pattern mapping, data organization, and more. There are many tools out there that additionally boast of insight generation, but it’s important to pair these tools with a human perspective, keeping an eye out for confirmation bias and feedback loops in AI-generated information.
By crafting the right prompts and using AI to its strengths, user researchers can develop a companion in their research, and a helpful, trainable one at that.
Watch: How UX researchers can partner with (and not be replaced by) AI
Understand where AI can help, and where it falls short
While artificial intelligence can make researchers’ lives easier, it has its limitations.
In Research That Scales, author Kate Towsey says to “Treat AI as you would any other tool: question where it will be best used, and how it will impact the culture, results, and value of research.”
Jake Burghardt, author of Stop Wasting Research, has dedicated a whole book to building research repositories and limiting research waste—even without the help of AI. Yet Jake advocates for appropriate AI use, citing the time it can save, as well as the support it can offer. At the same time, he cautions that there is no “push-button” technology that will magically solve the problem of research waste.
“When appropriate, adding AI-based features to research tooling can valuably support operations…AI in defined use cases can be a complement for researchers’ smarts, sometimes saving extensive manual efforts.”
– Jake Burghardt
This is a situation in which understanding AI’s benefits versus its limitations is critical. Artificial intelligence can be of great use to the user research process. In fact, User Interviews’ 2024 AI in UX Research report cites that 48% of surveyed participants cite AI’s speed as a benefit. And in Maze’s 2026 User Research Report, 63% cite improved turnaround time as a benefit. The evidence here is clear: AI can be a timesaver for UX research. But it’s not the answer to everything.
Build Better Products author Laura Klein presented her talk, Human vs. machine: Testing AI’s ability to synthesize and analyze research at Advancing Research 2026 this past March, as a way to demonstrate this exact conundrum. Here’s a peek at some of her findings:
- AI tools frequently produce insight-shaped outputs but often lack the rigor and accuracy of trained human researchers
- AI excels at finding semantic connections and grouping codes in large, already coded qualitative datasets quickly
- AI moderators cannot currently assess user behavior beyond spoken words, missing key usability observations like failed or inefficient tasks
- Contextual elements such as environmental interruptions are critical in research but are invisible to AI tools
- Integrating AI with organizational systems to pull in diverse data sources improves context but requires expert setup and is not yet simple
Read: Research That Scales by Kate Towsey
Read: Stop Wasting Research by Jake Burghardt
Watch: Human vs. machine: Testing AI’s ability to synthesize and analyze research
Continuously discover how UXers are using AI
What better way to keep up with trends than by hearing from the researchers on the front lines of this innovation?
There are many resources out there for user experience professionals, but the Rosenverse combines thousands of hours of conference and community videoconferences with years of podcast episodes, dozens of high-quality books, and a UX-specific chatbot. We may be biased, but we seriously cannot recommend it enough. Here’s our two favorite ways to stay up-to-date on AI trends:
Rosenverse Live
Did you know that Rosenfeld Media hosts free virtual events—around 100 per year?
We like the keep our finger on the pulse of all things UX, and right now that includes frank discussions about AI. Here are some of our recent Rosenverse Live sessions about artificial intelligence:
- The Handoff is Dead: Design-Led Engineering with AI Agents
- When AI Agents Meet Reality. Service Design Lessons from a Pilot
- Improving Democratized Research with CustomGPTs and Gems
Designing with AI
The Designing with AI conference is entering its third year as a standout in the UX space. Since 2023, Rosenfeld Media has been painstakingly crafting the annual event with the most poignant and relevant case studies and talks about AI.
Who better to learn about AI from than the designers and researchers on the ground using it?
If you’re Rosenverse Gold member, you can watch all past Designing with AI conference sessions. But you don’t have to miss out: Designing with AI 2026 is in just a few short weeks! Register now for #DwAI2026.
Watch: The Handoff is Dead: Design-Led Engineering with AI Agents
Watch: When AI Agents Meet Reality. Service Design Lessons from a Pilot
Watch: Improving Democratized Research with CustomGPTs and Gems
Attend: Designing with AI 2026
How are you staying up to date with the latest AI trends in user research? Do you believe AI is the next evolution of research, or do you have a more cynical take? Let us know!
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