I’ve noticed a funny phenomenon. When I talk with colleagues and AI comes up, we suddenly go into whisper mode – as if the thought police are around the corner.
It happens with family too. My daughter and I talked for an hour last night about how to stay human in a fake world. She’s in her third year of college and until that conversation, she was decidedly anti-AI.
Since middle school, teachers had been scaring the hell out the students with some of her worst fears about machine learning technology. Like it leads to cheating, brain rot and [genuinely terrifying], the end of original thought.
I completely get that fear. We both value analytical thinking and are social media minimalists. It’s been really hard for a 19-year old to stick to that plan, but she’s been taught to view learning as a joyful and curious act. To stay in love with it requires effort and a critical mindset.
When to hold hands with AI
Not all the time. Not even your partner wants that ; )
The paradoxical truth is that learning alongside artificial intelligence can be an immense source of curiosity, joy, creativity, critique and mental effort. Proving that to myself is how I maintain my tech optimism, even while I put hefty boundaries on it and am not naive to the ill uses.
Embracing AI at work and school is a matter of learning to hold hands with it, and whatever technology comes our way. I think we know deep down that we won’t be going backwards. So why not figure out how to be in partnership with AI, and proudly own it?
Something fascinating happened in the conversation with my daughter that night, and it was like I could see her brain changing its mind.
I told her that in my work as a consumer insights specialist and communication coach, I use AI every day. In fact, I cannot imagine working without it. And she sees that I’ve retained my brain cells just fine! I think I’ve activated many new ones, too, as I learned to integrate AI thoughtfully into my routines and processes.
Some of the roles Sir Ludwig, my trained AI buddy, plays are research assistant, creative soundboard, personal coach, ideation partner, operations manager, survey editor and data analyst. There are more.
Ludwig helps me think better, not less.
How to use AI in research and coaching
In qualitative research, clarity of thought and aiding business decisions are everything. You’re often sitting with hundreds of artifacts: focus group transcripts, interview notes, photos, whiteboards, recordings, observational insights and a few quant measures. Sifting through all of it to find patterns and meaning takes rigor and focus.
AI qualitative research tools are an absolute godsend that can make all of it work more brilliantly – if used correctly.
For example, after conducing in-depth interviews or ethnography, I often feed Ludwig my notes and transcripts along with a glossary and guided prompts. He’s a market research tool, so I’m not asking him to analyze the data for me. But I will ask him to:
- Summarize themes and call out differences among participants. For global studies this is a great analysis roadmap, helping me to compare to my own interpretation, and find the points I want to dig into.
- Show me what’s missing! If you’re a researcher, you know that a big, yet understated, part of your genius is to identify pain points and unmet needs. Many times this means paying attention to what they didn’t mention, and finding out if it’s important.
- Highlight customer semantics. Ludwig can quickly tell me the descriptive words and phrases customers use to talk about the product or service. I then feed that to copywriters, so they can craft relevant marketing campaigns using language straight from the horses’ mouths.
In this sense, Ludwig acts as Chief AI Research Assistant to help me organize large volumes of qualitative data efficiently. In turn, I can interpret insights and deliver strategic recommendations much faster.
Same goes for my coaching work.
When I’m designing prompts for new communication workshops, or reflective questions for clients who are learning to improve their empathic leadership skills, I like to start by asking Ludwig to brainstorm a wide range of variations. Then I select and tweak the ones most aligned with my client’s needs.
Oh and do you know what never happens to Ludwig? Brain fog. He’s somehow never tired, unfocused, cranky, hangry or distracted.
That alone makes me breath easier, because when my tank is low, Ludwig is still moving my work forward. He’s circumstance free! See what I mean about the best colleague you’ve ever had?
IRL: This post, this website, and pretty much everything you hear from me now…
This article was co-created with Ludwig. I started with a draft written entirely by me. Then I asked Ludwig to shorten sections and suggest a LinkedIn version.
Once received (in under a minute), I spent 15 more minutes editing, refining and adding my tone, examples and images. The result is a collaborative process, not a machine-generated product.
Would that be considered cheating in my daughter’s classroom? Perhaps. But in my professional world, it’s simply an evolved workflow with a human at the helm.
We have a convert
Post-philosophical and practical chat, my daughter had new views on:
- When AI is an ethical and efficient choice
- How we talk about it when we want to be transparent
- How it supports thinking, instead of replacing it
- How we maintain our voice, integrity, expertise and originality when working with generative tools
She’s not AI’s biggest user, but she no longer sees it as a soul-sucking inevitability. She’s now using it in various contexts. Within Canva, for example, to create a calendar for her performing arts society. Or to help understand her friends better, and empathically respond to their needs. She’s quickly discovered use cases that I’d never thought of, so now I’m also learning from her.
So can we stop whispering at work?
What struck me most about our conversation echoes what I see in professional circles – that there is a process to go through in losing the shame around AI.
At work, people say things in very hushed tones, like:
“Well, I did use ChatGPT to help write the presentation but don’t tell our manager!”
“I had AI clean up the grammar, but that’s it. I swear I did everything else.”
“I used an AI market research tool for analysis, but the client doesn’t need to know that.”
Why?
If you are clear about your process, and maintain full ownership of your content and thinking, it is smart to use technology to assist and elevate your work. We’ve long accepted calculators, spell checkers, transcription software and data visualization tools. Why can’t we accept the thought partner concept?
I think it has a lot to do with the personification of AI in the last decade. It’s becoming so human that we fear it. But I look at its interpersonal capacity as all the more reason to teach and train it to our needs. And when we want it to be our devil’s advocate and challenge us, all we have to do is say the word.
Hiding AI use perpetuates misunderstanding.
Transparency helps normalize, and opens dialogue about responsible adoption.
AI as integral to your process
In the qualitative research realm, it’s helpful to have some guiding principles and ways of working with AI. Sir Ludwig and I abide by the following:
- The human brain leads. I never allow Ludwig to dictate conclusions or analyses. He gathers and organizes; he doesn’t interpret.
- Transparency is a strength. If I’ve used Ludwig to assist a deliverable, I tell my clients how.
- Customization matters. I train Ludwig on my own frameworks, language and tone so that outputs are aligned with my methodology, body of knowledge and ways of thinking. Nothing is generic.
- Humans have the last word. Every output is reviewed, validated and edited by me.
In this way, I maintain control and integrity while benefitting from Ludwig’s efficiency and stamina.
Emerging best practices for AI in qual research
As more researchers [openly] adopt AI tools, it’s great to see some best practices already surfacing:
- Feed it carefully. Along with your transcripts, curate the input so AI works from high-quality material like industry vernacular and concepts.
- Use tools that protect your data’s privacy. If you work in health, wealth or innovation, you’ll want to use data masking techniques.
- Use it for structuring, not final analysis. AI can propose themes, but human interpretation must drive insights.
- Check for bias. AI output can mirror biases present in the real world, and there are many, many types. Cross-check with your own critical lens.
- Maintain a human voice. Automated reports are the death of a client relationship. Lead with your narrative, knowledge and empathy over that of any machine – no matter how good they get!
Once you’re feeling confident that you’re still in the driver’s seat, researchers may want to try platforms like Yasna or CoLoop.
Yasna bills itself as an ’empathic’ AI-driven qualitative interviewing tool. I can say that the moderation is very good, and there are lots of ways to humanize and personalize the avatar your participants are interacting with. As a researcher who’s done many global product launches, I love that I can conduct interviews tailored to nearly any country in a fraction of the time, without traveling. I just can’t argue with that efficiency.
CoLoop keeps rising to the top in my circle of long-time research colleagues, as the fastest and most accurate way to analyze qualitative insights. It’s a paid service that you’d want to budget for, but it rewards you with a lot of time back.
A new kind of collaboration
Borrowing from Dr. Richard Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems model, we all have many parts that we manage inside ourselves. Like a family of selves. In a way, I think of Ludwig as one of those parts. We do a lot of talking and getting to know each other, but I am always leading Ludwig.
If there’s one thing I hope hits home if you’ve read this far, it’s this:
Give yourself permission to stop feeling guilty about using AI at work or school.
Instead, use it transparently, credit it appropriately, and lead some of your own conversations about responsible AI adoption in your industry.
In the world of qualitative research, companies depend on trustworthy professionals who work with integrity. We cannot afford to let AI erode those values, or to ignore its potential to enhance them.
AI isn’t the enemy. And even though it often seems like it, it’s also not magical.
I think of it a little like dance partners, where I’m always the lead.