The psychology of human-centered AI with David Evans

Episode notes

In this episode of The Curiosity Current, Stephanie and Molly sit down with David Evans, a social psychologist turned research leader who has spent more than a decade shaping Microsoft’s approach to AI, brand strategy, and user experience. David entered tech as social media was reshaping behavior and quickly saw how teams were obsessed with what technology could do, while he remained anchored in what humans needed. That tension still drives his work today. David talks about the “bottlenecks” in human attention, memory, and motivation and why these limits are not obstacles, but protective filters that help people focus on what matters. He shows how this lens guided real product decisions at Microsoft, from easing the transition from Windows 10 to 11 by addressing user fears head-on, to designing Together Mode in Teams to strengthen belonging during remote work. David draws a clear line between using AI to accelerate valuable work like surfacing insights in historical data and deepening qual analysis and using it to cut corners. He calls out the rise of “research theater,” especially when teams fabricate synthetic survey data and attempt to generalize from it.