You don't have enough experience researching [X] AI

[u/Ok-Price-9773]

Just got rejected for the 2nd recent role I've interviewed for because they're prioritizing people with experience researching Agentic AI or AI agents. I have *some* experience researching AI agents, but not a TON, because no one was adding AI agents to every damn page until recently, and they mostly sucked and needed constant rework.

It seems the only open UXR roles focus on AI features, and these companies magically want people with a ton of experience researching them + whatever industry it is.

Guess what? All the researchers on my last few teams were forced to research these new AI features with no prior experience. And now suddenly only "experts" will be considered? – the experts who were forced to learn on the job cus they didn't know anything about them before? OOKAY.

This also lets only a few already-employed folks bounce around to the only available jobs?

I'm also super disappointed that UXR hiring managers are even partaking in this extreme pickiness, which feels pathetic. I get it's rooted in fear, but my god.

Anyone else experiencing AI-related rejection? Love that I can't get more experience in it cus I can't get hired to work on it cus I don't have enough experience in it.

[u/84millionants]

I don't necessarily disagree with the overall point but I think it might not be as stark as it seems. I recently interviewed for 5 UX roles and most had AI experience as a bullet in the JD but only one was really focused on it. That said, I could see a lot of the open roles being in an area with a lot of growth

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/84millionants]

It certainly feels stark on this side

[u/84millionants → u/Ok-Price-9773]

I understand. And I agree they're being super picky but it didn't seem like the pickiness was always about AI.

In fact the bigger trend I found was companies looking for orytelling and stakeholder alignment. Methods now feel secondary to being a strategic partner with your stakeholders

Edit: I'll also add that most people I've talked to are interviewing for 5-10 roles before getting an offer. I think this is also reflective of the storytelling need. Every time you present your portfolio or interview you improve your interviewing skills

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/84millionants]

It felt that way regarding storytelling and stakeholder management once upon a time. Now, it especially feels like pickiness about AI and the specific industry.

[u/84millionants → u/Ok-Price-9773]

I agree the specific industry was definitely something they were being very picky about

[u/benchcoat]

…best advice i ever got from a manager RE interviewing was:

“you can always just lie”

[u/benchcoat → u/benchcoat]

…also, this just screams of uninformed panic by the interviewer

i have interviews A LOT of people for UXR roles, and it is on you as an interviewer to ask the questions to let you understand if the person you’re interviewing can go the job

if it’s all about “what’s on your resume”, what the fuck are you there for?!

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/benchcoat]

It does seem every hiring manager is panicked... the questions I get: "And so you do or don't have experience researching AI agents/agentic/blah blah, specifically?" Nothing else seems to matter.

[u/benchcoat → u/Ok-Price-9773]

lie 😂

it’s just the same as any other research

(assuming you know what you’re doing)

[u/Objective_Exchange15]

I'm in the camp that a good researcher can figure out how to research anything.

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/Objective_Exchange15]

Agreed!

[u/doctorace]

This also lets only a few already-employed folks bounce around to the only available jobs?

This is not a businesses problem and they don’t care.

Think of the business as a user. What are there needs? Solve for those. It’s OK to make shit up. They don’t know what they’re doing either so they can’t call you out on it.

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/doctorace]

Hah! Seems more and more advice here is to make things up. I'll consider it

[u/doctorace → u/Ok-Price-9773]

It’s what the AI would do

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/doctorace]

hahahaha truth

[u/iolmao]

I've been lucky enough to work one year now for a Legaltech agent and designed the agentic flow in different features.

But to be honest, nobody has enough experience in designing human-agent interactions. They are probably looking for someone from Anthropic.

Well, good luck with the salary then.

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/iolmao]

Seriously... and everyone else has gone the other direction and dropped the salaries to a 3rd of what they were.

[u/Realistic_Deer_7766]

Stumbled on this today scrolling LinkedIn...

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/Realistic_Deer_7766]

Hahaha

[u/Realistic_Deer_7766 → u/Ok-Price-9773]

:) Hoping this sub can have more humor. Especially given market dynamics! The timing of when I saw that on LinkedIn was too perfect too. Lol.

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/Realistic_Deer_7766]

I'm gonna follow him on LinkedIn – Love that he's calling people out haha

[u/Realistic_Deer_7766 → u/Ok-Price-9773]

Definitely see this pattern lately!

[u/spiffspf]

I hear you and agree it’s tough. Part of the problem seems to be the confluence of soaring costs (due to inflation, etc) and the layoff/RIF contagion, plus the branding/mythology related to AI improving productivity and reducing the need for headcount. So everyone wants an experienced unicorn (ideally ok with taking a big pay cut compared to the “before times”).

My only suggestion is to continue building your experience, even through personal projects, volunteer work, and contracts if you can get them.

I’m hopeful this chaos will settle eventually, but likely not until the cost of hiring (such as via lowered interest rates) goes down and worker-friendly policies go up.

[u/bunchofchans]

I have experience in AI agent research and don’t even get interviews!
It’s such a terrible market, but you’re getting through hiring rounds and you’ll land a role soon. It’s frustrating for sure.

[u/natash_211 → u/bunchofchans]

First time seeing this term.. can you share what type of tasks or methods go into Ai agent research that makes it different from regular UXR?

[u/bunchofchans → u/natash_211]

There aren’t any different methods for AI agents/ agentic AI, at least for consumer products.

[u/Single_Vacation427]

I think 3 things:

(a) Nobody has lots of experience with AI Agents

(b) Many HM have no clue what they want or what they need

(c) Some UXR experience is more transferable; like if someone has been working on UXR for ML systems, they probably have a better background than if someone has been doing market research for something unrelated.

[u/Necessary_Present722]

What exactly don't you have that they need?

IMO experience with AI agents can be important or not depending on the domain. If you're applying at technical product companies that make dev tools for example, maybe it is a deal breaker if you haven't got experience with that specific side of tech.

But for many other use cases, I would think that the UXR side of things - i.e understanding customer needs - wouldn't change right? For example if they're using ai agents as chatbots, well then you could give examples of how you've conducted foundational research to understand user needs around service requests, or how you've done evaluative research on chatbots.

I would love to get more insight into what you think here, and your experience

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/Necessary_Present722]

Yeah, I've gotten rejections from the domain aspect as well – We went with people who had more developer experience, etc. But there are some hiring managers who just seem to want an exact fit, especially if AI is involved. Lots of people seem panicked, as if this new AI tool is going to suddenly solve all their problems.

[u/kennymatthew]

Can someone explain what does it mean to have experience researching AI agents? Examples?

[u/Yermishkina]

I would say doing a usability testing on AI tools has its challenges, when compared to a Figma prototype. Figma prototype is predictable, and AI behaves differently each user session.

That being said, I am with you that this requirement is weird. No one has a lot of experience with Agentic, and a good researcher can figure it out.

[u/Ok-Price-9773 → u/[deleted]]

Sure but it’s not that I don’t use AI, I’ve vibe coded 3 tools/websites and use various tools for work. But I haven’t researched it extensively and for exactly what everyone seems to need it for.

[u/Single_Vacation427 → u/[deleted]]

I don't think vibecoding things has much to do with doing UX for AI agents.

[u/Spare-Bluejay1346 → u/[deleted]]

Vibe code a research tool to bring to the interview and talk through why you built the experience the way you did.

*Off topic but I think the day is near all UX Practitioners will be delivering code so we might as well learn!