Future of UX Workflow with AI Integration : An Exploratory Study from the Perspectives of Experts in a Finnish IT Service and Consultancy Company
Noor, Saira (2026)
2026
Tietojenkäsittelyopin maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in Computer Science
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2026-07-27
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202607278502
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202607278502
Tiivistelmä
As the rapid development in AI is also having an impact on the UX design practices. However, there are still limited empirical studies on how experts or professionals understand, use and adopt the AI in their workflows. This exploratory study focuses on investigating how AI is affecting on the UX workflows through the perspectives of senior design professionals at a Finnish IT service and consulting company.
This research is based on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with the professionals across various roles, which include insight lead, senior product designer, senior visual designer, senior design anthropologist, strategic digital designer, and user experience designer. These process-oriented interviews were analyzed by the reflexive thematic analysis that resulted in final themes, from which the findings were consistent among all the participants: user research and the observation of human behaviour must remain led by humans, the outputs from AI require verification by humans, and strategic decisions and conclusions cannot be assigned to AI.
Despite these shared positions among the participants, a clear and important split emerged. The research-oriented participants experienced the AI as a support that enriches their thinking and learning that requires careful theoretical grounding, while the participants who are practice-oriented designers engage with the AI as a tool used as a production and iteration accelerator. Participants also raised concerns about critical thinking, creativity and the professional skills development while believing that after receiving homogeneous results from AI will make human skills and creativity more distinctive and valuable.
The study provides the real world insights from the professional practitioners on the roles humans and AI perform in UX work, the role-based disciplinary split between AI as cognitive scaffold and AI as production accelerator, and what effect it may have on work-flows, professional roles and organizational use.
This research is based on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with the professionals across various roles, which include insight lead, senior product designer, senior visual designer, senior design anthropologist, strategic digital designer, and user experience designer. These process-oriented interviews were analyzed by the reflexive thematic analysis that resulted in final themes, from which the findings were consistent among all the participants: user research and the observation of human behaviour must remain led by humans, the outputs from AI require verification by humans, and strategic decisions and conclusions cannot be assigned to AI.
Despite these shared positions among the participants, a clear and important split emerged. The research-oriented participants experienced the AI as a support that enriches their thinking and learning that requires careful theoretical grounding, while the participants who are practice-oriented designers engage with the AI as a tool used as a production and iteration accelerator. Participants also raised concerns about critical thinking, creativity and the professional skills development while believing that after receiving homogeneous results from AI will make human skills and creativity more distinctive and valuable.
The study provides the real world insights from the professional practitioners on the roles humans and AI perform in UX work, the role-based disciplinary split between AI as cognitive scaffold and AI as production accelerator, and what effect it may have on work-flows, professional roles and organizational use.