In UX research, we often hear the question: “Can AI really replace a human moderator?”
Instead of speculating, we decided to find out.

In partnership with Udy Ravid, we conducted a comparative study to see how a Human UX Researcher and an AI Moderator would perform when running the same research project. Both followed the same scope, participants, and study design. The goal: identify where AI matches, exceeds, or still falls short compared to human-led research.

The Study Design

We compared human vs. AI across four critical phases of UX research:

1. Recruiting participants - Speed, targeting accuracy, and participant fit.

2. Setting up the study - Clarity, structure, and alignment to research goals.

3. Study execution - Quality of facilitation, adaptability, and participant engagement.

4. Analysis - Depth, accuracy, and actionability of insights.

Both the human and the AI received the exact same brief. The difference was in how they approached the work - one bringing human intuition, the other using Genway’s AI-Moderated Research technology.

Key Findings

Here’s what we discovered:

• Recruitment - AI was faster and maintained targeting accuracy, but humans leveraged personal networks to add niche participants.

• Setup - Both produced clear research plans, but AI reduced prep time significantly.

• Execution - Human moderators excelled at building rapport and navigating complex emotions; AI offered perfect consistency and adaptive follow-ups at scale.

• Analysis - AI delivered rapid, structured insights; the human analysis added deeper contextual interpretation.

The result? AI isn’t replacing human researchers - it’s redefining their role. The most powerful approach was a hybrid model where AI handled repetitive and scalable tasks, freeing the human to focus on complex, high-context elements.

What This Means for UX Teams

• Scale without sacrificing quality - Use AI to run more interviews, faster.

• Consistency + empathy - Let AI handle structure while humans handle nuance.

• Faster time to insight - AI can process and surface patterns in hours, not weeks.

As research demands grow, the winning teams will blend the speed and scalability of AI with the contextual intelligence of human researchers.

You can watch the entire webinar on our YouTube channel here - make sure to comment and subscribe.