Synthetic Users & Experts: Your 2026 Research Edge

Hosted by John Whalen, PhD

Wed, Jan 14, 2026

10:00 PM UTC (30 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

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Agentic AI for Research: Build Custom Workflows & Synthetic Users
John Whalen
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What you'll learn

Harness a Team of Synthetic Users for Richer Insight

Learn to deploy coordinated groups of synthetic users to reveal reliable, pattern-based customer perspectives.

Leverage Synthetic Experts for High-Quality Reasoning

See how synthetic experts can deliver instant domain knowledge, critique, and synthesis to elevate your research output.

Build an Always-On Research Resource

Activate synthetic users and experts as an always-available system for continuous consumer and expert insight.

Why this topic matters

2026 will be the year synthetic users become a standard part of the research toolkit, and the researchers who master them early will gain a significant edge. In this session, you’ll learn how to harness teams of synthetic users and synthetic experts to get customer perspective and expert opinion on demand. You’ll walk away ready to start 2026 with always-on synthetic research capacity at your fing

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
Bloomberg
Mars Wrigley
Blue Cross Blue Shield

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