Human-Centered UX in the Age of AI: Microsoft UX Director

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Human-Centered UX in the Age of AI: Microsoft UX Director

UX360: What motivates you to join the UX360 Virtual 2026 and what is the core message of your talk?

**Judy Ma, Director of User Experience, Microsoft**

Judy: I’m excited to join UX360 Virtual 2026 because this moment in our industry is both exhilarating and urgent. AI is transforming UX research at an unprecedented pace — accelerating analysis, revealing large-scale patterns, and enabling teams to move faster than ever before. But speed alone doesn’t create meaningful experiences. My session, “Human-Centered UX Research in the Age of AI,” focuses on restoring balance: pairing AI’s efficiency with the irreplaceable human skills of empathy, critical thinking, and contextual interpretation.

The core message is simple: AI can amplify our work, but only humans can interpret the nuances, emotions, and contradictions that define real human experience. When AI becomes the default lens for understanding users, we risk losing the human story — and with it, design integrity. I’ll share practical frameworks like empathy checkpoints, verification ladders, and cognitive friction points that help teams slow down at the right moments, challenge automated outputs, and ensure that research remains thoughtful, ethical, and human-centered.

UX360: How has this impacted your own work and your organisation?

Judy: AI has reshaped how my teams and I work — not by replacing human insight, but by letting us redistribute our time and talent. Automated transcription, clustering, and synthesis reduce analyst time by up to 50%, allowing us to redirect energy toward deeper interpretation, stakeholder storytelling, and more strategic design decisions. This shift has elevated the role of researchers as sense-makers rather than data processors.

At an organizational level, we’ve adopted human-first research loops, embedding structured checkpoints into AI-assisted workflows. These practices help us mitigate automation bias, avoid data myopia, and ensure we never confuse “patterns” with “people.” Through combined AI-plus-human approaches — like curated personalization experiments — we’ve seen measurable gains in experience quality without compromising editorial trust or inclusivity. Ultimately, AI has made our teams faster, but human oversight ensures we remain meaningful.

UX360: How has User Research and Design as a practice evolved in the last couple of years, and how would you like to see it evolve in the next few?

Judy: In the past few years, the UX field has undergone a profound shift. Researchers now work within highly automated ecosystems where NLP engines, predictive models, and real-time synthesis tools are standard. This has expanded our analytical capacity — but it has also increased our responsibility. We are no longer just conducting studies; we are curating the interaction between AI-generated outputs and human judgment.

Looking ahead, I want to see our practice evolve from automation-enabled to intent-driven. UX research must lean even more into contextual interpretation, inclusive data governance, ethical AI frameworks, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. At the same time, empathy must become an explicit part of our process — not a feeling, but a discipline. As AI grows more capable, the differentiator in great research will not be technical prowess, but the ability to hold space for human complexity.

UX360: Given this evolution, what are two expected and two less obvious skills market researchers should possess, and why?

Judy:
Expected skills:

Critical thinking. As AI tools generate increasingly fluent outputs, researchers must rigorously challenge, verify, and contextualize what the algorithms produce. Critical thinkers prevent automation bias from shaping decisions.
Systems literacy. Researchers need a foundational understanding of how AI models work — their strengths, blind spots, and data dependencies — to use them effectively and responsibly.

Less obvious skills:

Cognitive friction facilitation. Teams need people who can intentionally introduce productive “slowdowns” that prompt deeper inquiry. This skill helps ensure that insights are not merely fast, but accurate and meaningful.
Narrative interpretation. With AI handling pattern detection, human researchers must excel at interpreting nuance, emotion, contradiction, and context — the elements of user stories that no algorithm can authentically reconstruct.

UX360: Apart from work, what can delegates at the event talk to you about? Do you have any particular personal interests, hobbies or extracurricular activities and engagements?

Judy: Absolutely! Outside of work, I love playing golf — it’s a sport that constantly teaches me about growth, resilience, and mindset. What I enjoy most is that in golf, you’re really competing against yourself. There’s no such thing as a “perfect” score; you simply try to get a little better each time. That philosophy mirrors how I see UX design: there’s never a perfect experience, only continuous refinement and thoughtful iteration.

Golf also reminds me that the more relaxed and grounded you are, the better you perform. A tense swing never works — and the same is true in career growth. When we focus too narrowly on promotion or what’s next for us, the work becomes less enjoyable. But when we take the long view, stay curious, and embrace nonlinear growth — including the occasional step back to gain new perspective — the journey becomes much more meaningful.

I love talking about these intersections between sport, mindset, and design craft. If you enjoy golf, personal growth, or conversations about how to build a balanced, purpose-driven career, I’m always up for it.

UX360: Last but not least, we are publishing “reading/listening guides” on our blog, can you share your favourite recommendations for inspiration, learning and leadership:

Judy:
In your ears – Podcast:
99% Invisible — a masterclass in curiosity; reveals hidden systems and design decisions that inspire lateral thinking;
Design Matters with Debbie Millman — meaningful discussions on creativity, culture, and the craft of design.

Must read – Book/Blog:
Book: Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug — a timeless, no-nonsense guide to intuitive design that reminds us great UX removes cognitive friction so humans—not interfaces—can do the thinking.

Blog: Stratechery by Ben Thompson — insightful analysis on technology, business strategy, and how digital systems shape human experience.

UX360: Thank you, Judy. We look forward to hearing more from you at the event.

UX is changing fast. What worked yesterday won’t carry you forward.

At UX360 Virtual Summit (Feb 4–5, 2026), senior UX research and design leaders share how they’re evolving their practice to stay relevant—and deliver measurable impact.

Expect cutting-edge strategies, real-world case studies, and insights that deliver ROI. Hear from teams at Meta, Microsoft, Walmart, Oracle, Decathlon, Newell Brands, and more.

You’ll learn how to: