How Priyanka Kuvalekar's UX Research Expertise is Shaping the Future of AI-Powered Communication and Collaboration Platforms

AI-based intelligent communication and collaboration platforms are now the backbone of modern work and the U.S. economy, used by a large user base to keep organizations operating across technology, healthcare, financial services, education, and the public sector. They power everything from urgent patient consultations and financial transactions to hybrid work coordination and digital public-sector communication, making their reliability, usability, and intelligence critical to national productivity and competitiveness.

"AI for communication is about turning complex, high-stakes collaboration into experiences that feel clear, intuitive, and inclusive," says Priyanka Kuvalekar, a leading expert in UX Research for AI-based Intelligent Communication and Collaboration Platforms. She has built a strong reputation in her field by shaping how intelligent systems interpret, route, and support communication at scale. Her work sits at the intersection of user research, AI, and mission-critical collaboration infrastructure, and its influence extends far beyond any single product. As a Senior UX Researcher at Microsoft, Priyanka leads research for intelligent communication and collaboration for Teams Calling and Voice Agents. Her work shapes product strategy, improvements, and AI experiences spanning global enterprise customers. Her career centers on two things: product improvements should be user-insight-led, and AI should adapt to people, not the other way around.

Leading Advanced UX Research for AI at Microsoft

Microsoft Teams stands as one of the world's largest AI-focused collaboration platforms, serving more than 300 million monthly active users and over 80 million Teams Calling users. As a Senior UX Researcher specializing in AI-based calling, voice, and agent experiences, Priyanka conducts UX research that informs the design of widely used communication and collaboration tools, helping top U.S. organizations connect and make decisions. Her work helps ensure these systems operate as dependable, accessible, and human-centered infrastructure for mission-critical enterprise communication. Today, her UX research for Teams Calling and AI collaboration experiences actively supports U.S. hospitals and healthcare enterprises coordinating patient care through intelligent calling workflows. U.S. financial services institutions also rely on these AI-driven calling capabilities to serve clients and conduct critical business operations.

Priyanka's research defines how AI behaves in Teams' voice and AI agent workflows. She determines when an AI calling agent should intervene and how it summarizes, routes, and surfaces insights with trust and clarity. AI products influenced by her UX Research are used by more than 80 million monthly active calling users and actively help improve ROI for U.S. enterprises, enabling companies to reinvest savings into growth and hiring. Her insights guide which features to build, refine, or retire and how to prioritize AI experiences across the roadmap, directly improving productivity, reducing friction, and enhancing operational resilience for U.S. companies competing in global markets, helping American businesses maintain their competitive edge.

Through mixed-methods research, from in-depth studies with enterprise users to accessibility testing and large-scale AI experience evaluations, Priyanka ensures Teams' AI features reduce cognitive load and support real-time decision-making. Her leading work across 10+ cross-functional teams directly informs capabilities such as AI-assisted calling workflows, intelligent summaries, proactive voice suggestions, and accessibility-focused features used daily across regulated industries. "AI in collaboration tools should feel like a trusted partner in the background, quietly doing the heavy lifting so people can focus on judgment, empathy, and decisions," she explains.

By helping ensure Microsoft Teams' AI and agent systems are effective, inclusive, and reliable, Priyanka contributes to research supporting communication tools used by many organizations in the U.S., strengthening business performance and contributing to the nation's economic competitiveness.

Cutting-Edge UX Research on Collaboration and AI Products for Cisco Webex

Before Microsoft, Priyanka led critical UX research at Cisco Webex Collaboration, advancing Meetings, Messaging, Calling, and Webinars. These AI experiences were serving millions of global users. Her research helped optimize seamless collaboration and AI automation features that saved hundreds of hours each week for U.S. enterprise customers by improving meeting scheduling, transcription, and follow-up workflows.

These innovations directly benefited U.S. organizations by improving workforce efficiency, reducing operational overhead, and accelerating communication across global teams in sectors including technology, manufacturing, and professional services that drive the nation's economy. Priyanka established herself as an accessibility champion, co-leading the accessibility research practice for Webex.

Her research uncovered critical pain points for assistive technology users and helped ensure that Webex collaboration experiences were designed and developed to work for all types of users, while supporting enterprise customers in meeting accessibility obligations under laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and related compliance standards.

Advancing UX Research Approaches for AI-First Communication and Collaboration Platforms

Priyanka emphasizes that AI-focused UX research explores how people interact with intelligent communication systems. "In today's workplace, AI-powered collaboration tools aren't optional. They're essential for scale, clarity, and inclusion," she explains. Her recent work centers on agentic AI: autonomous agents that reason, act, and coordinate across workflows. She focuses on how these systems must communicate responsibly with users.

Her research contributes to emerging UX practices for voice AI agents and agentic AI experiences: determining when AI should proactively assist, when it should remain silent, and how it should explain its reasoning so users retain trust and control. She also drives AI Evals, structured evaluation frameworks that refine large language models and improve their accuracy and usefulness in real collaboration settings.

By enforcing transparency, controllability, and accessibility in these emerging systems, Priyanka is helping ensure that AI evolves responsibly within workplaces that directly affect end users. Her Responsible AI and accessibility work has tangible societal benefit, particularly in U.S. healthcare systems and financial institutions where trust, compliance, and inclusion are paramount. By guiding how AI communicates and learns within these domains, her research contributes to safer, more equitable, and more reliable collaboration experiences that protect both workers and the public.

Leadership, Influence, and Prominence in the Field

Priyanka's influence extends well beyond her direct product work. She was invited to speak and delivered a senior-level presentation for industry professionals at the Grace Hopper Celebration 2025, a major gathering for women in technology, with 30,000+ in-person attendees and thousands online. Her presentation focused on how UX professionals can influence AI product teams through insight, empathy, and strategic research, sharing practical frameworks for driving human-centered decision-making in AI development. Additionally, she was invited as a featured speaker at the Women in Tech Global Conference 2024, where she presented "AI and Accessibility: How AI in Digital Collaboration Can Empower People with Disabilities (PwD).

As a WomenTech Network Founding Member, she also plays an influential role in a global community of innovators advancing responsible AI and inclusive design. Her active mentoring on ADPList has guided multiple early-career professionals entering the UX and AI fields, contributing to U.S. workforce development in emerging technology.

Her thought leadership in integrating AI research with human-centered design principles has contributed to shaping industry standards for AI-powered collaboration. These achievements demonstrate her prominence as a recognized professional in the field, defining this fast-evolving field.

Looking Forward

As AI-powered collaboration becomes the foundation of modern work, Priyanka plays a role in its continued development. Her research on intelligent communication systems, agentic AI, and Responsible AI principles underscores her commitment to using technology for both economic and societal advancement. This combination of technical depth, strategic foresight, and measurable global impact highlights her experience working on advanced UX research topics related to AI-powered work environments that defines how AI-powered work will evolve in the coming decade.

For Priyanka Kuvalekar, UX research for AI and intelligent communication platforms is not merely a profession. It is a mission. "The future of AI in collaboration isn't just about smarter systems," she reflects. "It's about applying UX research to build AI-based collaboration and communication products that make interactions clearer, fairer, and more accessible so people and organizations can do their best work."