I've been in the field of UX (user experience) and tech for a couple years now, after nearly a decade conducting professional research. It's equally exciting and terrifying to consider how AI will impact what I do, as a researcher, as a manager of the research process, and as an org scaler.
Instead of sticking my head firmly in the sand like I see so many impactful people do at companies right now, I'm wading into this daunting world. Not quite with the most open arms (I do wholeheartedly consider the value of bringing back Luddite principles), I do nevertheless want to form my own opinion before closing the door to AI. Such finality will not only leave individual researchers and UX practitioners behind, but it can -- no, will -- also leave entire companies behind.
The simplest of answers at my very early AI use -- chatGPT and perplexity only so far -- these tools approximate processes and answers but cannot, yet, do what we do. AI cannot see outliers and corner cases, but only draws from the saturated middle of data. For now, remember that you as a researcher are not replaced by this tech. But in order for this to keep remaining true, you must consider and keep considering what you can offer that it cannot. And keep getting better at what you land on.