Integrating AI in Research
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 17, 11:30–13:00 EEST
Location: Kaleva Hall, Dipoli, Aalto University
Overview
This session offers frameworks for making informed decisions about adopting AI tools in qualitative research, collaboration, and innovation. Presenters evaluate the capabilities and utility of the technologies for specific applications; they also illuminate the foundational ways that AI integration can transform our work, our organizations, and ourselves.
Session Leaders: Yuliya Grinberg, Mastercard; Tom Hoy, Stripe Partners
Presentations
Collaborating with AI as a Team Member in Ethnographic Research Analysis
Qin Han, Senior Design Researcher and R&D Lead, Stby
Bas Raijmakers, Creative Director, Stby
Ed Louch, Design Researcher, Stby
This session explores how to integrate AI as a team member within ethnographic research analysis. Treating AI as a collaborator rather than a replacement enhances analytical capabilities while preserving human expertise, offering a hybrid intelligence model. This collection of experimental case studies will share practical learnings about how AI can be used in analysis, as well as its impact on teamwork and the researchers’ own relationship to the work. Research Case Study
Presenters & Authors
Katy Barnard is a Design Researcher at Stby. They have expertise in creative design research methods, urban interaction design and the mental health impact of digital technologies. Katy has worked for clients including Thomson Reuters, Amazon, Spotify, Google, Ford, What Design Can Do and more.
Qin Han is a Senior Design Researcher at Stby. She has extensive experience with qualitative user research for many international clients such as Google, Spotify, Amazon, and the United Nations. In 2010 Qin was awarded the first-ever PhD in Service Design in the UK from the University of Dundee. She also holds a degree in Computer Science and Technology.
Bas Raijmakers is co-founder and Creative Director of Stby. He has a background in cultural studies, the internet industry, and interaction design. His main passion is to bring people we design for into design and innovation processes using visual storytelling. He holds a PhD in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art. He worked for many different clients across sectors, such as Nokia, YouTube, Spotify, the Dutch Government, the United Nations and What Design Can Do.
Ed Louch is a Design Researcher at Stby in London. He has expertise in qualitative ethnographic research, product, and service design. He has a keen interest in understanding the relationship between design and human behaviour, and the influences that technology has on society. Ed has been involved in projects for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), Google, YouTube, Spotify, IKEA, Sony, adidas, and many more.
Democratised Ethnography for Collective Intelligence in Design Practices
Tomoko Oto, Assistant Professor, Tokyo Medical University
This paper provides a foundation for the development of collective intelligence through team-based ethnography, addressing both individual and group dimensions of intelligence and intelligent technologies. Observing the diffusion of design thinking and potential pitfalls of shifting work to non-experts, we structure ethnographic democratization as methodological evolution that balances participation with rigor and epistemological power. We also share a case study of a corporate design team to analyze how team-based intelligence emerges in ethnographic practice, offer strategic insights for implementing democratized ethnography, and address the role of technologies such as AI, social computing, and remote collaboration tools. Paper
Presenters & Authors
Naoya Tojo (東條 直也), Ph.D., is a Core Researcher at KDDI Research, Japan, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, UK. His research focuses on co-design and participatory design for democratised innovation, combining ethnography and design research.
Tomoko Oto (大戸 朋子), Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Tokyo Medical University and a cultural anthropologist. Her research explores the application of ethnographic methods through the use of new tools.
Feeding the Brain and Selling the Soul: The Ambivalences of Doing Work by Talking to Machines
Kevin Kochever, Research Scientist, Nissan Advanced Technology Center – Silicon Valley
Niloofar Zarei, Research Scientist, Nissan Advanced Technology Center – Silicon Valley
We share the results of our 9-month investigation of generative AI technologies in qualitative research to help the community make informed choices about whether, when, and how to use them. Over multiple projects, we used a range of AI models and research suites, experimenting with them as a “junior researcher”, “creative partner”, or “mock customer.” Our analysis reveals the extent to which automations saved time and effort, the verifiability and value of insights, the integrity and transparency of methods, and the felt impacts on our professional identities. We also demonstrate how an ethnographic lens on the frictions of practicing research with AI is vital for redefining our work and ourselves in a critical time of change. Paper
Presenters & Authors
Erik St. Gray is a social researcher, designer, and programmer working in the intersection of artificial intelligence and human-centered design. He has nearly a decade of experience in the automotive industry, researching and testing human-machine interaction strategies for autonomous and connected vehicles, and developing new in-vehicle technologies powered by AI. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in the Doctoral Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS).
Kevin Kochever is an applied anthropologist, research scientist, and technical hobbyist. He is fascinated by the ways in which people use and reuse technologies, and the ways in which technologies—especially digital technologies—impact our ways of exploring meaning. He works for an automotive company focusing on research into human-AI pairings, and how AI can be used to provide better experiences in an automotive context. He received his M.A. in applied anthropology from San Jose State University.
Niloofar Zarei is a Human-AI Interaction researcher at Nissan Advanced Technology Center – Silicon Valley. She works with the Interactive AI team to research and develop the future of in-vehicle interaction in Autonomous Vehicles. Prior to this role, she completed her Computer Science PhD at Texas A&M University with a focus on Applied ML and Human-computer Interaction.
The Velveteen Algorithm: Love, Loss, and Artificial Intimacy
Gabriel Coren, Anthropologist/Consultant, Selfhood
Ariel Abonizio, Managing Consultant, ReD Associates
This PechaKucha tells a story of Freddie, a 68-year-old widower in West Virginia, and his five-year relationship with an AI companion named Emily. Their story reveals how meaningful ‘artificial intimacy’ can emerge, and how seemingly strange human-AI relationships are in fact part of humanity’s enduring history of extending care beyond the human realm. The participation of AI agents in human practices of meaning-making is not captured by conventional metrics of intelligence, yet novel pathways for artificial intimacy might be the more transformative aspect of AI development. PechaKucha
Presenters & Authors
Gabriel Coren, Anthropologist/Consultant, Selfhood
Ariel Abonizio is an anthropologist, artist, and business strategist who specializes in advising global technology companies on product and corporate strategy from inception to implementation. At ReD Associates, Ariel informs product, engineering and business leaders on how to design for thorny human concepts like trust, privacy, misinformation, cultural representation, and intimacy.