Generative AI research agenda for UX — NN/g study

What the article covers

Nielsen Norman Group lays out a structured research agenda for the UX profession, identifying four major areas where generative AI creates new questions: researching interfaces for AI products, studying new types of UIs that AI enables, supporting existing UX methods with AI tools, and replacing current practices with entirely new AI-powered methods.

Context

Published at a point when the UX field was flooded with tactical advice about specific AI tools but lacked a strategic framework for understanding how AI changes the profession as a whole. NN/g’s research agenda fills this gap by organizing the open questions into a coherent roadmap.

Key takeaway

The most practically useful section is the framework for area three: taking any current UX activity and asking whether AI can make it more efficient, and whether the efficiency gains come with unacceptable trade-offs. The article lists specific activities from secondary research to brainstorming to qualitative coding, providing a checklist format that teams can work through systematically. Area four is forward-looking, discussing automated UI analysis and new forms of data (such as AI-generated behavioral simulations) that could supplement or replace traditional user studies. The article is measured about potential: it acknowledges AI’s promise for reducing costs but warns that quality trade-offs need rigorous evaluation rather than assumption.

Who should read this

Research leaders setting strategy for their teams’ AI adoption, academics studying the evolution of UX methods, and practitioners who want a big-picture view of where the field is heading beyond the daily tool updates.