I study how people understand, trust, and live with complex systems—especially systems that start to feel human.

Today, many technologies do more than follow instructions. They recommend, explain, decide, and sometimes speak in human-like ways. Brands do this too. Products, services, and AI systems now act like they have a voice, a personality, or intentions of their own.

My research asks what happens when this shift occurs. How do people decide whether to trust these systems? Who do they hold responsible when something goes wrong? And how do stories, identity, and design shape those judgments?

Current Areas of Research

AI Policy and Accountability
I study how laws, rules, and institutions try to govern AI systems that act with some independence. When decisions are shared between people and machines, responsibility becomes harder to define.

My work looks at how people understand AI decisions—not just how systems work technically. I focus on trust, explanation, and oversight, and on how policy can support systems that people can question, understand, and hold accountable.

Brand Strategy and Identity (Forthcoming Research)
I research how brands use identity, stories, and symbols to help people make sense of uncertainty. This includes work on brand archetypes and how people respond to brand “personalities.”

As more brand interactions are handled by AI, these signals matter even more. My research examines when identity cues help people feel confident and aligned, and when they create confusion or distrust.

Humanlike Products and Luxury
I study humanlike products in luxury settings to better understand how design affects trust and value. Luxury is a useful setting because people already expect care, intention, and meaning from these products.

In this work, I look at how features like voice, personality, and agency change how people see products. These studies help explain how people react when products feel less like objects and more like social partners.

On the Horizon

My long-term research goal is to understand humanlike systems—systems that take part in social and organizational life, not just technical tasks.

Future projects explore:

• How trust changes over time in human–AI partnerships

• How explanations and system memory affect responsibility

• How people decide when to rely on a system and when to take control back

• How design and policy can protect human judgment and agency

I use a mix of methods, including experiments, interviews, surveys, and theory building. I care about strong evidence, but I also care about clarity. Research should be understandable and useful, not just accurate.

How I Approach Research

At its core, my work is about translation.

I translate lived human experience into research evidence.
I translate complex systems into ideas people can reason with.

I am most interested in the spaces where boundaries blur—between human and machine, story and structure, control and delegation. These are the places where trust is tested and where design choices matter most.

Understanding how people make sense of humanlike systems is not optional. It is essential to building technologies and institutions people can safely rely on.