A Recap of Advancing Research 2026
March 18, 2026The Advancing Research 2026 conference, curated by industry veteran Jemma Ahmed, took place virtually on March 10-12, 2026. This event marked a pivotal moment for the UX research community, bringing together diverse voices and perspectives to explore how the discipline is evolving.
If you’d like to explore more from the conference, you can:
- Explore the full program
- Learn more about our speakers
- Buy the recordings (available through June 9)
Key highlights from the conference
Several themes emerged, reflecting how UX research is evolving in response to new technologies, growing complexity, and increasing expectations for impact.
1. Research is becoming an influence discipline
Research is more than just generating insights. It’s about ensuring those insights drive decisions.
Dana Chisnell framed sensemaking as a “superpower,” while a panel with Tala Tayebi, Kelly Goto, and Jared Spool explored how researchers can stay influential even in increasingly noisy, data-saturated environments.
Dr. Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa offered another perspective on influence, focusing on how curiosity and experimentation can make insights more engaging and actionable. Her work shows how research can move beyond reporting findings to actively shaping how teams think, collaborate, and innovate.
These sessions show how influence plays out in practice, from how insights are shared to how they shape decisions.
2. Rethinking Research in the Age of AI
AI is opening new possibilities for research while raising questions about depth, quality, and human judgement.
Several speakers explored how AI can expand research capacity without sacrificing the nuance that makes qualitative work valuable. Tara Tressel discussed how AI-moderated interviews can help teams balance depth and efficiency, while preserving the empathy and context that often get lost at scale.
At the same time, questions about the limits of AI were front and center. Laura Klein examined where AI-driven synthesis falls short, showing how surface-level insights and misleading patterns still require careful human interpretation.
Other sessions pointed to emerging middle grounds. Vitorio Milano shared how quantitative ethnography can translate qualitative data into structured insights, opening new ways for teams to work with complexity. Mujtaba Hameed focused on how AI can support in-person research by reducing time-intensive tasks, giving researchers more space to focus on deeper engagement and richer fieldwork.
The conversations left many with a more thoughtful and less reactive perspective on how AI fits into research practice.
For more Rosenfeld content about AI in UX, explore our virtual workshop series starting this April.
3. Strategies for navigating the evolving research tools landscape
A new third day of the program focused on tools and infrastructure, with sessions open to both paid attendees and free viewers. Together, they highlighted how quickly the research tools landscape is changing and how teams are adapting.
A session on testing and experimentation, led by Erin Weigel and Petra Rajkov, showed how these tools are becoming central to ongoing product decisions, not just validation.
Caroline Jarrett, Aleksandra Korczynska, and Justyna Parmee explored how survey tools are evolving to better support UX research, especially when paired with qualitative methods.
Maria Rosala and Shivanja M. focused on the future of research repositories, while Kate Towsey, Basel Fakhoury, Oren Friedman, and Graham Gardener examined how recruitment tools are improving both speed and research quality.
With so many tools available, our third-day sessions helped clarify how teams can evaluate and choose what’s right for them.
Looking Ahead
As we move into 2026, the insights from Advancing Research 2026 will undoubtedly shape the future of the discipline. The conference set a high standard for collaboration, innovation, and thought leadership, leaving participants inspired to push boundaries in their work.
Missed out? Don’t worry—recordings and resources are available for purchase and viewing through June 9, 2026. Following that, all #AR2026 materials will be available in the Rosenverse exclusively to Gold members. Stay tuned for updates on future editions of Advancing Research!
