Els Aerts co-founded AGConsult in 2001, back when user research meant moderated testing and basic surveys because Google Analytics didn't exist yet. That constraint bred deep expertise: when you can't automate or scale, you learn to extract maximum value from every interaction. Over two decades, she's built AGConsult into a respected user research and conversion optimization consultancy, earning herself the nickname "Queen of User Research" from industry figures like Talia Wolf. In 2024, she received the Legend of Experimentation award at the Experimentation Elite awards. Her client list includes Nespresso, Sony, TUI, AXA Bank, and Microsoft, and she's lectured at universities including Ghent, KdG, and Artevelde.
On the podcast, Els delivered a sharp critique of how AI is being misused in research. Synthetic users, she argued, produce only generic problems that apply to every product: navigation is confusing, information is hard to find, the process takes too long. Real users reveal specific friction points in language that exposes gaps between designer assumptions and actual experience. AI works well as a research assistant for transcription and draft analysis, but its conclusions must be verified because it hallucinates insights not supported by data.
Her broader message cuts deeper than the AI debate. The democratization of research tools has created what she calls "research theater," activities that look like legitimate user research but produce nothing actionable. Surveys remain powerful when designed by someone who understands question fundamentals: how wording shapes responses, how order creates bias, how scales get misused. Handed to an untrained practitioner, those same surveys produce confident-sounding insights that quietly steer strategy in wrong directions. The tool isn't the problem. The expertise behind it is.
User research legend Els Aerts exposes why synthetic users fail and how surveys became both the biggest breakthrough and biggest mess in UX.
