AI Tools for Researchers, Patterns vs. Insights, and When to Trust AI Output: Q&A with Angela Kochoska

Angela Kochoska, Design Researcher and Data Scientist at IDEO and co-instructor in IDEO U's new course, Human-Centered Research with AI, joins Mina to answer your questions on how to responsibly and effectively use AI in the research process. 

After her co-instructor Hannah Rosenfeld’s episode on using AI in human-centered research, our audience had so many great questions. We dedicated an entire episode to answering them.

How do you stop AI from flattening nuance? How do you know when you've outsourced your thinking instead of augmenting it? When does AI-assisted synthesis become a real insight, and when doesn't it? What does good prompting actually look like in a research context?

Angela brings a perspective that's rare: she came to design research from a PhD in astrophysics and years building machine learning models for NASA and the European Space Agency. She knows how LLMs actually work, and she also knows why the conversation you have with your team in a coffee shop after a field interview still produces insights no model can replicate.

If you haven't heard Hannah's episode yet, it's a great place to start. If you have, this is the conversation that goes deeper into the questions it raised.

Angela teaches Human-Centered Research with AI alongside Hannah Rosenfeld at IDEO U. Find details and enroll at ideou.com.

Related Resources: 

Angela Kochoska on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-kochoska/

Hannah Rosenfeld's episode: https://shows.acast.com/creative-confidence-podcast/episodes/how-to-use-ai-for-more-human-centered-research-hannah-rosenf

Human-Centered Research with AI — IDEO U Course: https://www.ideou.com/products/human-centered-research-ai 

Read the episode recap on the IDEO U blog: https://www.ideou.com/blog

In This Episode:

(Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks)

(02:07) From NASA sky surveys to design research — Angela's unlikely path to IDEO

(06:57) What building the course with Hannah unlocked, including a new way to think about AI bias

(13:18) Q&A: How do you tell a real insight apart from an AI-generated pattern?

(16:11) Q&A: How do you stop AI from flattening nuance and overstating confidence?

(22:37) Q&A: Is it self-serving to say AI makes humans more important? How to address the skepticism

(26:09) Q&A: How do you know when you've crossed into outsourcing your thinking to AI?

(32:12) Q&A: What does good prompting actually look like in a research context?

(34:35) Q&A: How do you move from AI-generated insights to meaningful human-centered decisions?

(44:51) Q&A: What AI tools do you actually use? (Claude, Perplexity, NotebookLM, SciSpace)

(51:41) Q&A: How do you protect the depth and specificity that makes your research valuable?

(57:07) Q&A: My organization is skeptical of AI — how do I show its value?

(1:03:30) Lightning round: Angela recommends Always Coming Home, James Bridle, crochet, "Don't forget to look up,” and more.

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