The Influence of Generative AI on Early UX Work - A Study of Opportunities And Challenges

Abstract

The present study investigates how Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) impacts early user experience (UX) work within a large industrial organization. In a single case study of Volvo Group, the research examines GenAI’s influence on idea generation, user research, and design practices in the early phases of digital product development by the UX chapter. By integrating perspectives from innovation management, design thinking (DT) and UX literature, the study aimed to describe the potential and limitations of GenAI. Using a Gioia method for data analysis, five aggregated dimensions are developed to describe how GenAI influences early UX work in a large organisation. The findings reveal a complex picture: while GenAI shows potential in tasks like ideation, summarization, content drafting and insight mining, its integration remains partial and shaped by broader organizational conditions. Rather than replacing human creativity or fundamentally reshaping UX practices, GenAI functions are found to work as a supplementary tool in this study, one that offers both benefits and challenges. The experts included in this study described a paradox; the more GenAI is adopted for efficiency, the more essential human oversight becomes to catch hallucinations and contextual mismatches, yet the same adoption may risk eroding the very expertise needed for such critical judgment in the long term perspective. These effects are handled as elements of GenAI influence on early UX work, and are plotted in the influence table. Conclusion: GenAI influence on early UX work is multifaceted, with short-term utility and long term ambiguity, based on the long term competency erosion uncovered in the study.