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Artificial Intelligence (AI) for academic researchers (and lecturers)

—
^{‘I want AI to do my laundry and dishes, so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do the laundry and dishes.’} Joanna Maciejewska, poet

^{“Thank you so much. It was a real revelation.”} Tannya Pico (PhD), participant in a (crash) course on the use of AI for desktop research






Are you curious for more? Would you like to get in touch? Feel free to contact our lead directly for any questions or inquiries you may have. tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 69

Image: Innovation adoption model. Based on the model developed by Everett Rogers (Diffusion of Innovations, 1962), with the "chasm" concept introduced by James & Schirtzinger (Regis McKenna, Inc.) in the late 1980s and later popularized by Geoffrey Moore (Crossing the Chasm, 1991).

Are you an academic researcher and new to AI? Perhaps you consider yourself a ‘laggar’, and you feel like you’re too slow or skeptical and are falling behind. Or perhaps, you are simply such a novice, that you have no idea where to even begin. 

We offer a workshop especially for academic researchers who feel like ‘dummies’ in AI - with differentiation activities for those who already tested the water more.

The workshop focuses on academic writing, but very relevant also for your teaching practice such as when doing literature reviews and research work in a diversity of resources.

This is not a side-step from Education. It is the future. 

AI has become unescapable, whether you use it or not.

Did you realise that in a world where AI has already polluted the Internet so badly, that we can say it also creates garbage on the Internet (Landymore 2025), the data universities have will become their gold? Their currency? Making them stand apart and protecting what is still credible.

Your publication - is gold.

Today, universities are under immense pressure, and so, by default, you as an academic researcher and lecturer are too. Nature (2025) writes: ‘Faculty members are facing ever bigger workloads and intense competition for funding as research budgets are squeezed. Tightening visa regulations are undermining global (...) researcher mobility, while academic freedom is coming under pressure from politicians who see universities as unrepresentative of all parts of the social and political spectrum.’

AI has the potential to free up time for you when working on your literature reviews and publications.

The challenge we often time see with academics, is simply, where to start. Especially when you feel resistance, or even feel fear such as for privacy matters. Perhaps the growing amount of policy, at European level, at your university level and facultly level, is scaring you too.

Ethically speaking you cannot be forced to use AI or force others to use it (such as your students). It must always be a free choice. But equally, if you don’t know it, do you truly have agency over your choice to use it or not?

We approach entering the AI scene, in a playful way. With us, you finally start to be able to orientate yourself in the world of AI, without feeling like you’re in the middle of an avalanche of information. We bring back simplicity. 

We also bring back craftmanship, rather than taking it away. As the philosopher Richard Sennett (2009) writes about how the hand can think. His work is an exploration of craftsmanship - the desire to do a job well for its own sake - as a template for living. In this workshop we don’t take that away from you, instead, quite to the contrary, we create more space and time for you, to actually enjoy your writing.

Writing is not technical only, it is equally an art. AI actually can amplify what makes us human. As Stabel (2025) writes: ‘There's a peculiar paradox here: AI [A technology] forces us to consider what is truly human in education. We must learn to trust ourselves more. And perhaps that will lead to a revaluation of craftsmanship and human expertise.’ 

Last but not least, academic freedom is essential - the freedom to think independently, to be a stubborn questioner (after Universiteiten van Nederland 2025). The freedom to discuss subjects in your field without fear for censorship or repercussions. You as an academic researcher need freedom of thought and inquiry to advance and valorise knowledge (EUA 2025). Universities have a public duty to foster a culture of free inquiry while ensuring that this freedom is exercised responsibly. And as Ursula van der Leyen (Euronews 2025) said: ‘progress takes place when scientists feel free to follow their curiosity. Even if it leads to unexpected or clumsy turns’. 

This is why we also teach you how you can be cautious in the use of AI, and aware of policies out there to protect you. For instance, by understanding the basics of where the servers of clouds are based in the world, and why that matters. While freedom of expression is a fundamental right for all individuals, academic freedom is bound by standards of scientific integrity, quality, and professionalism (Universiteiten van Nederland 2025). You have a responsbility too in how you use publications. We teach you how to be smart, not scared, in working with your (un)published work.

Are you curious for more? Feel free to contact us directly: tikvah@studioblended.com

What makes our workshop unique?
We offer this AI workshop so that you can get started. And become smarter with your time, energy and cost investment, whilst you’re also better aware of what to do and what not to do with your published and unpublished work.

In this workshop we really take the angle of your own human resilience also, so that you can start to enjoy the benefits of AI and refind what makes you uniquely human.

It is truly risky to upload unpublished work into AI that is cloud based. This is why, together with you, we explore alternatives, such as European initiatives for safe cloud based AI applications as well as local AI’s.

You can start crossing the chasm of adoption of AI today, and belong to the pragmatic early majority or even early innovator once you start getting a taste of the potential and stop being afraid. Use it, or be used by it.

Note: the scope of this workshop is on researchers who do their literature review and write up their publications. It is not about the use of AI in research methodology and data collection.

References and footnotes 

European University Association (EUA) 2025. ‘How universities can protect and promote academic freedom. EUA principles and guidelines’. 

Everett Rogers (1962) Diffusion of Innovations. Illinoia, U.S.: Free Press of Glencoe.

Landymore, F. (2025) ‘ChatGPT has already polluted the internet so badly that it’s hobbling future AI development’. Futurism, June 16. Available:
https://futurism.com/chatgpt-polluted-ruined-ai-development (Accessed: October 27, 2025).

Geoffrey Moore (1991) Crossing the Chasm. HarperCollins Publishers. London and New York.

James, L.R. and Schirtzinger, W. 1980s. Crossing the Chasm. Sunnyvale, California: Regis McKenna, Inc.. 

 Liboreiro, Jorge (2025) ‘Choose Europe’, von der Leyen tells US scientists threatened by Trump policies’ Euro News, May 5. Available: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/05/05/choose-europe-von-der-leyen-tells-us-scientists-threatened-by-trumps-policies?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed: October 27, 2025).


Nature (2025) ‘The future of universities’. September 24, 2025. Available: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03065-w (Accessed: October 27, 2025).


Senett, R. (2009) The Craftsman. City of Westminster, London: Penguin Books.

Stabel, K. (2025) ‘Education in the Age of AI: A plea for Craftsmanship’. Blogpost by deputy director of Risbo, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Available: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/education-age-ai-plea-craftmanship-kris-stabel-qq7le/ (Accessed: October 27, 2025)

Liu, D. and Bridgeman, A. (2025). ‘What to do about assessments if we can’t out-design or out-run AI?’ University of Sydney. Available: https://educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au/teaching@sydney/what-to-do-about-assessments-if-we-cant-out-design-or-out-run-ai/ (Accessed: October 27, 2025).

Universiteiten van Nederland (2025). Statement on Academic freedom - the Rectors of the Dutch Universities  Available: https://www.universiteitenvannederland.nl/en/current/news/statement-on-academic-freedom-the-rectors-of-the-dutch-universities-2025#:~:text=Freedom%20of%20thought%2C%20expression%2C%20and,integrity%2C%20quality%2C%20and%20professionalism. (Accessed: October 27, 2025).

Related publications

World Resources Institute 2025, AI can help or harm the planet. It’s up to us. Blog entry.

We are here especially for you as unique course/training coordinator, to come alongside you and partner with you, as you work on a curriculum, so that you can offer effective and time/resilient education in its simplest form.

More design angles we use

Technical resilience
Big ideas
Paradigm shifts/decade strong
Human resilience
Modular
Time dimension
Evidence-based design
Financial health and resilience by (re)design
Innovative and deep pedagogy
Assesment / evaluation
Multi- Inter- and transdisciplinary
Flexibilisation and personalisation
Simplicity and decluttering
Artificial Intelligence



Curios? Feel free to contact our senior advisor and teacher trainer directly:
tikvah@studioblended.com

Resilient education that stands the test of time - by design.