Carol and Erin welcome George Whitfield, an expert in applying AI to the analysis of qualitative data. George discusses the intricate challenges of leveraging language models to interpret expansive open-ended data (like interview transcripts), emphasizing the importance of context and not just keyword or topic identification.
They'll dig into the crucial role of human oversight in AI, what preliminary analysis might look like using AI, how to check and refine the work of an AI assistant without derailing your project delivery date, and recommendations for etiquette regarding the reporting of AI-informed results.
The episode closes with an exploration of the limits of AI and where user experience researchers can play a larger role in its development. George believes AI can (and should) inspire new directions of research, but not dictate them.
Episode Highlights
About Our Guest
George Whitfield is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and CEO at FindOurView. As CEO of his most recent company FindOurView, he launched a Gen AI product to help user researchers synthesize insights faster from high volumes of customer interviews. George holds 4 patents and has 3 degrees from MIT including a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a Masters and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering.
Resources on Qual Data and AI
#67 - Growing a UX Research Startup with Basel Fakhoury of User Interviews and Benjamin Humphrey of Dovetail
#66 - Agile Research Ops with Joey Encarnacion of Slack
#65 - The Best of Awkward Silences (So Far)
#64 - Civic Tech with Cyd Harrell
#63 - Information Architecture in UX with Page Laubheimer of NN/g
#62 - The State of User Research with Katryna Balboni
#61 - The Role of Research in CX Transformation with Kim Salazar of Nielsen Norman Group
#60 - Discovery Research and Interview Skills with Maria Rosala of Nielsen Norman Group
#59 - Ethical Hacking, Information Security, and UX with Ted Harrington of ISE
#58 - The Lone UXR: Being a UX Research Team of One with Izzy Nichols
#57 - Research Amid Sudden Change: Working on Google Classroom During COVID with Amanda Rosenburg
#56 - 2020, UXR Year In Review
#55 - So You Want to Be In Research Ops? How Roy Olende of Zapier Made The Switch
#54 - End-to-End Experience Teams with Danielle Smith of Express Scripts
#53 - Everything in Context: Anthropology and User Research with Vanessa Whatley
#52 - The Missing Ingredient: How Storytelling Makes User Research More Impactful with Harrison Wheeler of LinkedIn
#51 - Uncharted Territory: AI & User Research with Hana Nagel
#50 - To Manage or Not to Manage? UX Research Careers with Amber Davis, UXR Director at Audible
#49 - The Magic of Diary Studies with Tony Turner
#48 - Rising to the Moment: UXR, Diversity, & Inclusion with Randy Duke
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