This week, Awkward Silences, the UX research podcast from User Interviews, released Prototyping AI in live research with Bold Insight & Panasonic Well. The episode features Gavin Lew, Managing Partner at Bold Insight, Larry Becker, Director at Bold Insight, and Katie Johnson, Global Head of Research & Consumer Insights at Panasonic Well. Drawing on a multi-year partnership, they explain how low-fidelity simulations and in-the-wild research reveal failure modes early, protect user trust, and accelerate responsible product decisions when products learn and change over time.

“This collaboration works because we share one goal: to build AI products people truly value,”  said Becker. “By uniting ethnography, simulation, and product thinking, we move faster with rigor intact.”

The podcast also previews insights that Becker and Johnson will present together next week at EPIC2025 in Helsinki. Based on a co-authored paper, From chaos to innovation: Understanding products and people in a non-deterministic world, their talk will share case study findings from joint research and introduce a flexible framework for studying emerging AI products.

Listen or watch the full recording on the Awkward Silences podcast website or on your favorite podcast platform.

About Awkward Silences
Awkward Silences is a UX research podcast, brought to you by the team at User Interviews. Tune in as they geek out and interview the people who interview people—the leaders, doers, and curious minds shaping the fields of User Research, Ops, Product, Design, and Customer Experience.

About Bold Insight
Bold Insight is a UX and human factors research agency based in Chicago and London. We execute projects that span the product development life cycle, conducting user research that informs early product design and global human factors validation. We work with digital, next-generation technology—medical devices, mobile apps, IFUs, and customer journeys. Reach out!