Bridging the Integrity Gap : Towards AI-assisted Design Research

Design research involves the human-centered analysis of substantial volumes of qualitative data, presenting a promising application for emerging generative AI technologies. While AI-assisted qualitative research remains an extensively explored topic within the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) discourse, the integration of AI into design research, differentiated by its intrinsic reliance on empathy and intuition, remains markedly underexplored. This paper reports on a qualitative study with 13 designers from a range of design disciplines, investigating the processes by which insights are cultivated in design research and the extent to which these processes may be effectively augmented or potentially undermined by AI interventions. The findings suggest that design research relies heavily on the tacit knowledge of designers, underlining the importance of designer-AI alignment. Drawing upon these findings and existing literature on human-AI trust, this paper lays the foundation for further inquiry into AI-assisted design research, by (1) identifying the development of intrinsic trust through designer-AI alignment as a central objective; and (2) introducing the conceptual framework of the Integrity Gap to motivate further studies.