2-day virtual workshop
April 29-30, 2026, 8:00am-12:00pm PT
UX researchers are experiencing increasing pressure to use generative AI in their workflows. But while commercial tool vendors champion AI as a cure-all for research woes, the academic literature–and in-depth, real-world evaluation–tell a more nuanced story. This means researchers must be able to evaluate for themselves where AI can effectively support research (and researchers), where it can’t, and where the human researcher provides unique value.
In this workshop, you’ll learn a framework for vetting AI capabilities, practice it with cutting-edge AI tools, and discover opportunities to evolve the role of research in this new world.
Target audience
User/UX researchers, market researchers, and people who conduct user/market research
Pre-requisites
Familiarity with fundamental user research methods (interviews, usability tests, surveys, qualitative data analysis).
No prior familiarity with AI is assumed. All tools will be provided.
Take-aways
- Understand the opportunities and execute current, evidence-based best practices for implementing AI within user research
- Have a framework for evaluating AI capabilities in the context of user research, both now and over the next 3-5 years
- Identify emerging opportunities to use AI to augment and expand user research’s capabilities
- Gain experience working directly with the models underlying major commercial research tools, as well as the latest long-context models and AI agents
DAY 1
Warm-up: AI + UXR hopes and concerns
Approaching UXR as Jobs To Be Done for stakeholders
- Introduce a framework for thinking about AI augmentation of UXR
- Understand the “main jobs” of UXR
Large Language Model (LLM) foundations for UXR<
- Why you should understand LLMs even if you’re using commercial AI tools
- Review LLM fundamentals
Practice and evaluate: LLMs for qualitative analysis
- Introduce key considerations when using LLMs for qualitative analysis
- Practice qualitative analysis with a long-context LLM
- Discuss how to optimize for stakeholder needs<
DAY 2
Practice and evaluate: AI-moderated interviewing
- Introduce AI moderation tool
- Practice creating and participating in an AI-moderated interview
- Review evidence-based best practices
Test a web interface with an AI agent
- Discuss the emergence of agents in the context of UXR JTBD
- Introduce “Agent Experience”
- Practice conducting a usability test for an AI agent
Extending the framework to other AI UXR tools (time permitting)
- Introduce AI tools and trends not previously discussed
- Create your own AI validation plan using the JTBD framework
Wrap-up
