Collaborating with Generative AI in Consumer Culture Research

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has introduced new possibilities for both the creation and analysis of language, which is one key input for consumer culture researchers who analyze qualitative and textual data. How can consumer culture researchers use GenAI to produce insights and work with qualitative data? What are the possibilities and challenges of using these tools? And what are some valuable practices and principles for integrating GenAI into the research process? Building from interviews with researchers who use these tools, the authors identify relevant theoretical, embodied, empirical, and historical contextual dimensions that produce opportunities and challenges for human–AI collaboration. The authors then propose a set of collaborative practices and offer practical guidelines for using GenAI to generate novel and meaningful insights into consumer culture and society.