How to build AI customer research workflows without losing the human touch

Episode web page: https://bit.ly/4zzktjl Episode summary: In this episode of Insights Unlocked, Nathan Isaacs chats with Caitlin Sullivan, founder of AI Customer Research, about how product, UX, and research teams can move beyond one-off AI prompts to build reliable, repeatable workflows that deliver meaningful customer insights. Drawing on more than 15 years of experience in customer research, Caitlin shares practical advice for identifying where AI can add value, measuring its impact, and building workflows teams can actually trust. Caitlin explains why the rush to automate everything can undermine productivity and how starting small, documenting processes, and testing AI outputs against established research findings can help teams achieve better results. She also explores how to experiment responsibly with sensitive customer data, collaborate on AI workflows using tools like GitHub, and demonstrate the value of AI investments. The conversation also tackles a bigger question: What shouldn't we automate? Caitlin makes the case for preserving critical thinking, human empathy, and the joy of discovery, reminding researchers and product teams that efficiency shouldn't come at the expense of the human skills that make customer insights valuable. You’ll learn: How to move beyond one-off AI prompts and build repeatable, reliable research workflows Why starting with small, frustrating tasks is more effective than automating everything How to measure AI's impact and validate outputs against trusted research findings Ways to experiment safely with AI while protecting sensitive customer data How to document, share, and continuously improve AI workflows across teams Why critical thinking, empathy, and human judgment remain essential in AI-powered research Resources & links Caitlin Sullivan on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlindsullivan/) AI Customer Research (https://aicustomerresearch.com/) Caitlin's AI Customer Research newsletter (https://aicustomerresearch.substack.com/) Nathan Isaacs on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanisaacs/) Learn more about Insights Unlocked (https://www.usertesting.com/podcast)