Smit Desai is an Assistant Professor in the College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) at Northeastern University, with joint appointments in Art + Design and Communication Studies and an affiliated appointment in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences. He directs the Conversational Human–AI Interactions (CHAI) Lab, which investigates how people understand, trust, and collaborate with conversational AI—and how these systems can be designed to augment human capabilities and support meaningful interactions.
Smit’s research bridges theory and design practice: he examines users’ mental models through methods such as metaphor analysis and persona design, and applies these insights to build next-generation conversational agents. His current projects span healthcare (AI assistants for serious illness conversations in emergency departments), aging and well-being (voice-first reminiscence systems like Memory Box), and everyday collaboration (LLM-powered chatbots that adapt to user personality). Across these efforts, his work emphasizes human-centered AI principles, transparency, and the social consequences of giving machines personalities and roles.
His work has appeared in premier HCI venues including CHI, CSCW, and TOCHI. He serves on the organizing committee for the ACM SIGCHI Conversational User Interfaces Conference (2024-2026) and leads workshops on ethical conversational persona design at major HCI conferences. Smit received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Departments
Art + Design, Communication Studies
Education
- P.h.D in Information Sciences from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- M.S. in Information Management from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- B.E. in Computer Engineering from Gujarat Technological University, India
Courses Taught
- ARTG5120