From Linguistics to LLMs – Thematic’s Alyona Medelyan on Human-Centered AI, Feedback, and the Future of Design

In this episode, we speak with Alyona Medelyan, CEO of Thematic, about how AI — specifically natural language processing (NLP) — is helping organizations turn unstructured customer feedback into meaningful insights. Aliona shares her journey from computational linguistics to founding a platform that empowers teams to understand not just what customers are saying, but why.

We explore:

• The evolution of NLP and large language models

• How AI can analyze real customer feedback at scale

• The importance of democratizing access to insights

• Why understanding the “why” matters more than just the metrics

At its heart, this episode is about designing AI systems that truly listen to people, supporting more human-aware decisions across research, product, and customer experience.