74. Beyond Coding: How AI Is Transforming the Way We Make Meaning

You’re sitting at your desk, staring at a mountain of interview transcripts. Hours upon hours of human stories. Contradictions. Emotions. Moments of confusion. Moments of clarity. Everything that makes qualitative data so beautifully complex… and so incredibly time-consuming. You stretch your shoulders. You breathe in. Likewise, you prepare for the long, slow, careful journey ahead. And then — someone else pulls up a chair. Someone who reads your transcripts in seconds. Someone who instantly suggests themes, highlights patterns, and summarizes ten interviews faster than you can sip your espresso. But this “someone”… doesn’t understand any of it. They don’t grasp cultural nuance. They don’t know your theory. Furthermore, they certainly don’t know your participants. This “someone” is AI. And suddenly the big questions appear: What does it mean to bring AI into the deeply interpretive world of qualitative research? What do we gain? What do we risk? And how does it change the way we, as researchers, make sense of the world? That’s where we’re going today. We’re talking about something that feels both exciting and a little unsettling: What happens when artificial intelligence joins us in qualitative research?

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