Reflexivity and writing occupies a central position in qualitative research practices. Research diaries, logs, and memos are often highlighted as tools for stimulating critical thinking in analytical work. GenAI offers new spaces for engaging with reflexivity and writing for qualitative researchers.

Drawing on cases from our new book Kvalitative undersøgelser med AI(Samfundslitteratur, 2026), we show how genAI can be used to productively challenge, extend, and make visible the researcher’s own reflexive processes throughout the research process.

The role of genAI in qualitative research is currently a topic of intense international debate among qualitative researchers. In the open letter “We reject the use of generative Artificial Intelligence for reflexive qualitative research”, Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, among others, argue that genAI is incompatible with reflexive qualitative inquiry because machines cannot engage in human meaning-making. The letter has gathered hundreds of signatures across countries and institutions. Other scholars have written counter-letters where they challenge the categorical rejection of genAI, arguing that it risks excluding posthumanist approaches and constraining methodological innovation. 

In this talk, we view the controversy as symptomatic of ongoing methodological shifts within qualitative research, in which established practices are being renegotiated and recalibrated as genAI becomes integrated across different stages of inquiry.