#182 - The Future of Research (In a Moment of Change)

Ben sits down with Basel Fakhoury, CEO and Co-founder of User Interviews, and Baran Erkel, Chief Strategy Officer at UserTesting, for a conversation about the research industry's evolution. With AI reshaping customer behaviors and business decisions, both executives emphasize how the need for customer insights has never been greater, even as budget pressures mount across organizations. Basek and Baran share frameworks for executive decision making, explore how AI tools are moving beyond simply replacing human moderators toward creating entirely new research methodologies, and stress that as AI transforms products and experiences over the next few years, customer insights will be fundamental to shaping organizational cultures that keep customers at the center. Highlights 05:15 How research influences corporate strategy 12:25 Building effective decision making cultures 19:07 Data formats that drive executive decisions 26:28 AI everywhere in research tooling landscape 29:30 Consolidating insights across teams and tools 36:45 Customer centric approach during acquisition integration Resources Read more about the acquisition The State of User Research Report Visual Design for Research Workshop

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#182 - The Future of Research (In a Moment of Change) is an episode from Awkward Silences by User Interviews.

This episode is 40:40 long.

This episode was published on Feb 3, 2026.

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