Joss Winn and I delivered a session on “Using Generative AI to Produce and Analysing Qualitative Data”, as part of the SeNSS/ SENSS doctoral training partnership’s Generative AI in research scholar series. In this session, we explored: The role of Generative AI in developing interview questions The potential of Generative AI for conducting interviews Approaches … Continue reading Using Generative AI to Produce and Analysing Qualitative Data (video)
June 2025 round-up
This was the “I should be more intentional” month. Child 1’s birthday and child 2’s end of school exams made me kick myself for not being more intentional about doing things with them over the years (as opposed to just doing things for them). Then, some pains and aches were stark reminders that I need … Continue reading June 2025 round-up
More Purchases but Less Viewing – The Impact of Smart Speakers on the consumption of video on demand
The news that Amazon’s Alexa+ has reached 1 million users inspired me to read a paper that has been on my TBR list for quite some time: “The Voice Of Commerce: How Smart Speakers Reshape Digital Content Consumption And Preferences”. This paper, co-authored by Yoonseock Son, Wonseok Oh and Il Im, and published in the … Continue reading More Purchases but Less Viewing – The Impact of Smart Speakers on the consumption of video on demand
Ten Years of Sharenting: How are the kids doing?
This week marks ten years since I sat on a panel about sharenting - the practice of parents sharing content about their children online - at a blogging event. The panel was hosted by Monika Roozen, then known for her blog Mum on the Brink, and my talk back then focused on how the data and metadata shared by parents … Continue reading Ten Years of Sharenting: How are the kids doing?
New paper: How features, resources and task demands shape digital wellbeing (or why digital technology helps some people some times, but not everybody all of the time)
We know from personal experience that digital technology can shape our wellbeing. On the one hand, it offers speed, convenience, and greater access to services. On the other hand, it can feel cold, confusing, or even overwhelming — especially for people facing challenging life circumstances. What’s less clear, however, is why the same technology can … Continue reading New paper: How features, resources and task demands shape digital wellbeing (or why digital technology helps some people some times, but not everybody all of the time)
May 2025 round-up
If April was a month of the new beginnings, May was all about gathering speed, as detailed below. On the personal front, the month included a jazz concert, Star Wars’ day, coffee with a friend, lots of fresh asparagus and the kiddo’s last day of school ever (and, thus, my last school drop-off / pick-up). … Continue reading May 2025 round-up
When things go wrong we forgive AI more easily than humans; but empathy saves the day
As AI agents increasingly handle customer service interactions, it's natural to ask: How do users respond when a service failure is caused by an AI agent versus a human one? A study by Yibo Xie, Zelin Tong, and Zhuorong Wu explored just that. Through a series of experiments, where participants were asked to imagine that … Continue reading When things go wrong we forgive AI more easily than humans; but empathy saves the day
How Purchase Certainty Shapes Our Trust in AI Advice
AI is becoming a common part of online shopping, but are there times when we still prefer human judgement? Research suggests that the answer depends on both the nature of the product and the customer’s certainty about what they want. Some time ago, I reviewed a paper by Fei Jin and Xiaodan Zhang examining when customers would accept … Continue reading How Purchase Certainty Shapes Our Trust in AI Advice
Chocolates vs phones: When is AI more persuasive than humans?
With growing interest in AI-based service agents, an increasing number of studies are comparing how users perceive interactions with AI versus human agents. Yaqi Chen, Haizhong Wang, Sally Rao Hill and Binglian Li examined user assessment of adverts created by a generative AI agent vs a human one. The details for this paper are: Chen, … Continue reading Chocolates vs phones: When is AI more persuasive than humans?
April 2025 round-up
My over-riding impression of April is that it was a month for new beginnings: interviews started for the agentic AI project; made inroads into two new papers; visited a University that the kiddo is keen to go to; and got started on a personal project that is really important for me. And, as the nice … Continue reading April 2025 round-up