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The team files · 07 / 17

Kahini Achrekar

Research Impact Lead

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Previously at

Board of Innovation

Board of Innovation

Based in New York

In one line

Cognitive and behavioural science background

Goes deep on

Behavioural science
Multi-market qual
Product input

Kahini Achrekar studied how people decide, ran AI-moderated research as a client, and then joined the company that made it.

Kahini grew up in Canada and studied cognitive science at UC Berkeley, then took a master’s in behavioral and decision sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a research assistant at Dan Ariely’s Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke, on interventions for the financial wellbeing of low and moderate income households.

At Board of Innovation she designed experiments and AI-driven strategy work, and it was there that she first used AI-moderated interviews client side. It changed what her team could do: deeper insight across more markets, on budgets that would not have stretched to it before. She joined Conveo in New York in February 2026 because she believed in the method.

On the research team she brings the client’s view to the product. Engineers build what researchers ask for, quickly, and she says it feels like being heard. Her accounts span consumer health, hospitality and travel, including a side-by-side test of AI-moderated interviews against a dozen human-moderated ones.

Energy comes from food: a food crawl, or a pastry run through a city’s bakeries.

Read the interview in full

Transcribed from the film and lightly edited for length and clarity. Click a timestamp to hear that answer.

Hi, I'm Kahini. I am based in New York, but grew up in Canada. I've always been curious about people, always wanted to understand them, so I have an academic background in cognitive science and behavioral science, picking apart the intricacies of the human experience.

Now I'm at Conveo. It's great. The people are amazing. The product itself is really cool, and it speaks for itself to researchers, but I'm happy to advertise for it too.

In my past life, I was using AI-moderated research, and that completely changed the way we were able to run our projects. We were able to get deeper insights across more markets, and so I really believe in this methodology and what AI can unlock to understand people better.

It's really interesting to see how it all happens. We have amazing people at this company. I love working with all of the engineers because they're so receptive to any product ideas, and everything gets built so quickly, everything evolves so quickly. It's been really great to have that product input as well, and it feels like we're really heard as researchers and what we want to build gets built.

At other organizations, I just didn't have as much ownership over what was happening. We were working for clients, but their budgets, their scopes dictated the direction of our exploration. At Conveo we have really cool clients who are exploring basically the whole world. So it's always interesting to see how they're using it, what they're researching, and drawing that out.

What gives me energy? I love food. Put me on a food crawl, I'll be happy. Pastry tour, absolutely. There are these pastry runs in multiple cities: a bunch of bakeries have a signup, and runners run between each bakery and get a pastry at each spot.

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Writing

By Kahini.

On conveo.ai

Getting to know Kahini.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Behavioural scienceCognitive science at Berkeley, decision sciences at Penn, a behavioural lab at Duke.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — AI-moderated interviewsShe used AI-moderated interviews client side before she joined. Deeper, across more markets.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Multi-marketMore markets on the same budget is what sold her on the method.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Product inputWhat researchers ask for gets built. She brings the client’s view into the roadmap.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Side-by-side testsShe ran AI-moderated interviews against a dozen human-moderated ones.

“I love food. Put me on a food crawl, I'll be happy. Pastry tour, absolutely.”

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Behavioural scienceCognitive science at Berkeley, decision sciences at Penn, a behavioural lab at Duke.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — AI-moderated interviewsShe used AI-moderated interviews client side before she joined. Deeper, across more markets.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Multi-marketMore markets on the same budget is what sold her on the method.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Side-by-side testsShe ran AI-moderated interviews against a dozen human-moderated ones.

Kahini Achrekar on set at the Conveo off-site in Cascais — Product inputWhat researchers ask for gets built. She brings the client’s view into the roadmap.

“I love food. Put me on a food crawl, I'll be happy. Pastry tour, absolutely.”

In Kahini’s words

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