AI for Strategic Research: Deeper Insights, No Slop
Ann Conway
Amplify CEO & Human-centered AI leader
Mark Micheli
UXR Strategy & AI Product Design
Learn to use AI as a thought partner to elevate the quality of your work.
The 2026 top AI Design course, now self-paced for more flexibility and with two 1:1 coaching sessions.
If you're a UX researcher, designer, or PM who wants to use AI to power your work, this course prepares you to collaborate with AI as a thought partner—not a replacement. You’ll learn a practical, repeatable research process that helps you go deeper, move faster, and produce more credible insights while keeping the parts of research that require skill, judgment, and empathy firmly human-led.
How this course is different:
Most programs focus on AI tools, AI-moderated interviews, synthetic users, and automated analysis. We think this approach is risky: at best, it produces shallow “research slop,” and at worst, it can hurt your credibility.
In this course, you’ll design your own human-led research process and integrate AI where it adds real value.
You’ll learn:
• How to communicate in iterative dialogue with AI as a teammate (not just write prompts)
• Synthesis methods that use AI to stretch your thinking and build on your ideas
• How to verify insights for credibility, evidence, and usability
By the end, you’ll be able to run an AI-supported research workflow that elevates your work.
What you’ll learn
Build an AI-supported research process you can defend. Practice every step on one client project, from research guide to stakeholder deck.
Identify where AI adds value, structure the right balance of human-led vs. AI-led tasks, and confidently guide an end-to-end process
Lead back-and-forth prompting that challenges assumptions, expands ideas, and deepens insight quality without letting AI take over.
Clean, structure, and annotate transcripts so AI produces more accurate, higher quality, and consistently evidence-backed insights.
Take your own first pass at synthesis, then compare it with the model’s to test drive it's thinking.
Use three conversation modes (framing, challenging, and sharpening) to push past the model’s first answer
Stress-test your insights: surface contradictions, alternative framings, and what’s missing
Check insights for accuracy, bias, traceability, logic, and stakeholder credibility, and build your own AI Insights Evaluation Toolkit
Write a diligence statement that shows where AI helped and where your judgment led
Present your insights to stakeholders with clarity and confidence
Craft your Designer Value Statement to advocate for your role with teams and clients
Learn directly from Ann & Mark
Ann Conway
Founder & CEO of Amplify, helping leading brands use AI to transform their work
Mark Micheli
Founder & Principal of say__do, helping organizations use AI to deepen research
Who this course is for
Anyone doing user research who wants to move faster and improve the depth and quality of their insights.
Research and Design leaders who need a clear, structured approach their teams can use to work faster, scale research, and stay consistent.
Product managers using AI to scale and democratize research who need a structured approach that preserves depth, quality, and human insight.
What's included
Two coaching sessions with Ann
We'll meet at the beginning and the end of the course to discuss your goals, needs, and what's next.
Thinking With AI Toolkit
The Methods Playbook (23 step by step AI-supported design research + strategy methods), AI insights evaluation methods toolkit, a Claude Skills cheat sheet, and more.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Share insights and progress with other researchers and designers in our private Slack channel.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.
Course syllabus
37 lessons • 13 projects
Pre-course: Get set up and meet the project
Before you begin: Set your goals and project foundation
Design project and materials
Module 1: Decide what stays human
Delegation: Design your AI-supported process and delegate with intention
Apply the 4Ds: Automate research ops tasks
Free resource
Evaluate the quality and accuracy of AI insights
14 methods to audit AI-generated insights
A checklist of steps to test AI’s accuracy, coherence, and relevance, and flag insights that misrepresent real data.
Prove (or disprove) AI’s reasoning
Learn how to make AI “show its work” and trace each theme back to evidence, not assumption or generalization.
A quality workflow that builds trust in your work
A repeatable framework for judging AI Product, Process, and Performance quality, and communicate it to stakeholders
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Testimonials
I can't imagine anything more! You have taken an ambiguous & complex topic and succintly captured how it can aid an already complex & ambiguous creative process 'Design Research & Strategy'. Your exhaustive materials and pristine presentation were so aptly curated, it inspires confidence to tackle this nascent untamed construct 'AI', so thank you Ann!
Shilpa M
Lead UX Researcher- My partner and I were thrilled to participate in your webinar. It's one of the most valuable sessions I've been in in years, and immediately changed the way we're working. THANK YOU. We were both incredibly impressed with the range of strategic to practical content and the wealth of resources you shared.
Sara F.
VP, Design + Product - I had the pleasure of attending Ann’s Designing Alongside AI webinar and was deeply impressed—not only by the rich content and thoughtful structure, but also by her generosity in making these insights broadly accessible. Ann went above and beyond by sharing materials and refer
Malini R.
Product Design Leader - Ann’s webinar was one of the most useful sessions I’ve attended. Clear, practical, and well-structured, it offered a thoughtful playbook and resource list that I’ve already returned to more than once. Ann has a real gift for making complex ideas actionable and accessible. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to navigate design in the age of AI.
Lili N.
Product Strategist & Researcher - I recently attended Ann’s session Designing Alongside AI and found it both highly relevant and practical. As a designer and researcher, I was seeking a clearer picture of the evolving AI-integrated research horizon, and her webinar provided exactly that. Ann’s insights into human-centered AI were particularly valuable, highlighting how designers ca
Anwer A.
Assistant Professor + Designer I really enjoyed Ann’s webinar, Designing Alongside AI—it was practical, engaging, and full of use cases that are directly relevant to improving my design research. I’m excited to keep learning from Ann and the amazing work being done at Amplify, and I look forward to joining more of her webinars in the future.
Cecilia H
Product + Experience Designer
Case study of an AI-supported research and strategy project
Methods Playbook: 23 AI-supported methods to apply to UXR + strategy
AI Insights Evaluation Toolkit
Frequently asked questions
Free resource: The AI-supported Methods Playbook
Download this playbook to start incorporating AI thoughtfully into your practice, without losing quality or human judgment.
Inside, you’ll find 23 design and research methods for framing, discovery, synthesis, and concept development. Each includes step-by-step instructions, sample prompts, common mistakes to avoid, and advice on how to balance human and AI roles.
Join the next cohort of the AI-Supported Design Research Process to define your own end-to-end design process and practice using these methods in a real research project with expert support.
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