AI Doomers and Boosters in Qualitative Business and Management Research

Is AI to Qualitative Research what Excel and spreadsheets were to Quants?

So there is a whole genre of AI commentary that “delves” into who the AI Boosters are and what they say, and who the AI Doomers are and what they say. I find it quite entertaining. And so rich in historical analogies. The future loves history, as far as I can tell.

Increasingly, the Doomers/Boosters narratives are being replicated by qualitative researchers in business and management. A bit closer to home, it is still entertaining, but also more annoying. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to be heard in the din.

It’s not surprising, though. The big question is whether AI will be to qualitative research what Excel and spreadsheets have been to quants. That is, will AI tools fundamentally change our practices and make us faster, more efficient and more accurate than before? Because arguably, computers calculating for humans have done that.

An Apple IIe running Visicalc. Image from ComputerHistory.org — Image copied from Dave Karpf’s excellent “The Future, Now and Then” Substack. Specifically, this post:

Are large language models on the trajectory of word processing or digital advertising?

When I still worked at Aston, I had a colleague, an economist by training, who still had hoards of paper files in his office (intimidating even by the standards of a historian), and some went as far back as to the days when you had to hand-calculate your regressions.

(But then, we should not forget that researchers who are not specialists in software programming often use such programmes poorly. So a trade-off of calculative accuracy vs. user error.)

This week, I attended yet another webinar (it’s a bit of a theme at the moment, I realise that), this one about AI and qualitative research, with Stine Grodal and Henri Schildt. Two colleagues we can confidently describe as AI boosters.

Below, which is for the paid subscribers only, I will not only talk about the event but also some of the recent publications by the AI Doomer camp. And a frankly embarrassing report by the UK’s Higher Education Policy Initiative, which is in a category of AI Booster all of its own, and one that I imagine even Stine and Henri would shudder to be associated with.

So, here comes the paywall.