Once AI helps you cluster research insights, the next step is connecting the dots. In Part 1B of the Mentoring AI series, learn how to coach AI to create realistic personas, simulate user flows, and build first-pass journey maps. Discover how thoughtful prompting turns AI from an assistant into a design partner—while you remain the lead shaping empathy and meaning.

AI can’t replace real users but it can accelerate the early stages of UX research. In Part 1A of the Mentoring AI series, learn how to guide AI from raw interview transcripts to clustered insights. Discover how thoughtful prompting and design leadership turn AI into a research intern... speeding up synthesis while keeping human nuance at the center.

AI won’t give you enterprise-ready critique unless you prompt it like a design lead. In this post, I show how a generic prompt led to fluffy feedback and how reframing with a task, role, context, constraints, and format transformed AI into a real critique partner. Think of it as mentoring a junior designer: guide the process, and the output levels up.

When AI is treated like a task-runner, you’ll get generic, misaligned output. But when you prompt with context, structure, constraints, and clarity... you set your AI intern up for success.