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The AI Research Toolkit You Need in 2026

Hosted by John Whalen, PhD

Wed, Jan 28, 2026

4:00 PM UTC (30 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

Free to join

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AI for Customer Research: Future-Proof Your UX & Product Skills
John Whalen, PhD
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What you'll learn

Sophisticated AI prompt engineering

Get the most from GPTs, today!

AI-moderated customer interviews

Which tool to use, when to use, how to optimize, how to scale research, how to blend qual + quant.

AI analysis of research

Learn how to ask questions of your repository. Gain insights from large-scale data samples.

How to partner with synthetic users

Learn how to use synthetic customers and researchers and designers to develop a multi-agent system.

Why this topic matters

AI is rewriting the rules of customer research—from interviews to analysis to synthetic user collaboration—and the pace is accelerating. The teams who build these skills now won’t just keep up; they’ll define how research gets done in 2026. This session helps you begin to understand your agentic future and the new toolkit of AI partners you’ll be working with in the months ahead.

You'll learn from

John Whalen, PhD

AI for UX Expert, Fortune 100 clientele, CEO, author & speaker

I lead Insights & Innovation at Brilliant Experience, where I help global brands understand the psychology behind their customers' behaviors and bring successful products to market.


Initially skeptical about AI, my team and I conducted “AI vs. Humans” studies to pinpoint precisely where AI-enhanced research excels—and where human judgment remains irreplaceable. I became convinced that AI will transform how research will be done.


Now I've reviewed >100 AI-enhanced tools and regularly interview pioneering founders in the AI-for-UX space and (thoughtfully) leverage the latest AI tools to deliver Accelerated Insights: rapid, scaled, global insights for top brands.


With a PhD from Johns Hopkins, and author of Design for How People Think, I combine academic rigor with real-world pragmatism to help you harness the new realities of AI-powered research.

Clients include

Google
Capital One
Mars Wrigley
Bloomberg
Blue Cross Blue Shield

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