This interactive, hands-on workshop will introduce participants to a framework for considering the consequences of using generative AI in qualitative research designs and workflows (Paulus, 2023; Paulus & Lester, 2024). We will start by acknowledging inherent risks and ethical dilemmas posed by the development of large language models and how generative AI is challenging the essence of what it means to do qualitative work (Paulus & Marone, 2025; Paulus, Lester & Davis, 2025). We will learn how to distinguish between methodological strategies and technological tactics, i.e. why researchers must first know how they want to work with their data before choosing the best tools to do so (Woolf & Silver, 2018). We will then discuss the current ‘state of play’ regarding the various genres of AI-assist technologies available to qualitative researchers and how to select the most appropriate platform. We will then compare and contrast several AI-assist platforms for managing and analyzing qualitative data. Finally, we will discuss best practices for how to report the use of AI in research studies (Lester & Paulus, forthcoming) and how to reflexively consider the consequences of doing so. Sample interview data will be used for the practice exercises. Workshop time will alternative between short lectures and demonstrations, small group discussions, practical hands-on activities, and application of principles learned to the participants’ own research studies and data.

References

Lester, J.N. & Paulus, T. (In press) The MERIT Framework: Guiding responsible innovation in qualitative methods. Invited chapter for D. Morgan and S. Friese (Eds.) Qualitative Data Analysis with Artificial Intelligence: Theory, Methods and Practice. Sage.

Paulus, T.M. (2023). Using qualitative data analysis software to support digital research workflows. Human Resource Development Review 22(1), 139-148.

Paulus, T.M., Lester, J. & Davis, C. (2025). The construction of the role of AI in qualitative data analysis in the social sciences. AI & Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02488-3

Paulus, T.M. & Marone, V. (2025) “In minutes instead of weeks”: Discourse dilemmas on AI for qualitative data analysis. Qualitative Inquiry 31(5), 395-402.

Paulus, T.M. & Lester, J. N. (2024). Digital qualitative research workflows: a reflexivity framework for technological consequences. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 27(6), 621–634.

Woolf, N. H. & Silver, C. (2018). Qualitative analysis using NVivo: The five-level QDA method. Routledge.

This course will count as 6.0 CSS short course hours.