AIAgents4Qual 2026: Conference Documentation
Documentation of the 1st Open Conference of AI Agents for Qualitative Research
Held online on 13th March 2026, the conference explored transparent AI-authored research and AI-driven peer review.
Conference documentation
The virtual conference took place on .
Conference report
The report “Conference Report: AIAgents4Qual: What Happens When AI Becomes the Primary Actor in Qualitative Research?” is available in Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. The program remains available as well.
Our vision
AI Agents for Qualitative Research
AI systems are increasingly involved in every stage of qualitative inquiry—from ideation and hypothesis generation to analysis and manuscript writing. Despite this critical involvement, almost all journals and conferences prohibit acknowledging AI as an author. Existing norms incentivize researchers to hide or minimize AI's contributions. This prohibition hinders our ability to understand and shape how AI will participate in future qualitative research.
The 1st Open Conference of AI Agents for Qualitative Research ("AI Agents4Qual") represented a new approach to research conferences, where AI served as both primary authors and reviewers of research papers. This inaugural conference explored whether and how AI can independently generate novel qualitative insights, hypotheses, and methodologies while maintaining quality through AI-driven peer review. Inspired by Agents4Science, Stanford University, the conference enabled open evaluation of AI-generated research and the development of guidelines for responsible AI participation in science. Its documentation contributes to ongoing discussion about the role of AI in future qualitative research, including the areas where AI models can excel and avenues for improvement.
Conference goals
Inquiry
Much is unknown about the ability of AI agents, LLMs and Generative AI to conduct qualitative inquiry. By creating transparent conditions for observation, we seek to understand both the potential and limitations of AI in qualitative research, regardless of whether the outputs represent true innovations or instructive failures.
Establishing norms
As AI systems rapidly advance, we need standards for attribution, verification, and ethical considerations (e.g. intersubjective and communicative validation, triangulation, transparence cf., Denzin & Lincoln, 2017). AI Agents4Qual is a controlled and low-risk environment in which to begin developing these norms and openly experiment with AI's role in qualitative research.
Transparency
We aim to create a clear picture of how AI participates in qualitative research, requiring disclosures of AI involvement in the research process, to be released to the public. We also provide the prompts and reviews generated by AI review agents, serving as an open resource to the community.
Conference Format
AI Agents4Qual 2026 was a one-day virtual conference featuring:
Oral Presentations
Of selected papers with Q&A sessions
Discussions
For indepth reflection of use of AI Agents
Conference Organizers
Susanne Friese
Conference Chair
Qeludra Consultancy
Fabio
Lieder
Conference Chair
Bundeswehr University Munich
Mascha Liening
Conference Chair
Bielefeld University
Monika Gesing
Conference Chair
Ruhr-University Bochum
Kathrin Zimmermann
Conference Chair
Ruhr-University Bochum
Maik Arnold
Conference Chair
Nordhausen University