Hi, I'm Aaron Kagan - Founder & Principal at GraspingAI
I am driven by the interplay between intelligence and embodiment. I thrive when dissecting complex AI strategy problems, helping teams find clarity where others see chaos, and designing for authentic human agency.
At a glance
Curated signals on strengths, focus areas, and how they can help.
Led high-impact AI interaction and governance initiatives as a Staff researcher at Google and Meta.
Currently provides strategic AI evaluation and UX decision frameworks through a specialized advisory practice.
Offers expert guidance on navigating the intersection of complex human behavior and technical product design.
🚀 Career trajectory
Philosophy, Cognition, and Human Systems
Built a deep foundation in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, embodiment, and human judgment.
✦ Philosophy
✦ Cognitive Science
Big Tech UX & Human-AI Systems
Led complex research and strategy work across Google Search, X/Loon, and Meta Reality Labs, spanning AI, automation, emerging interfaces, and high-stakes product decisions.
✦ Staff UX Researcher
Building GraspingAI
Founded GraspingAI to combine research, strategy, and product development around better human-AI systems, grounded in real organizational problems and workflows.
✦ Founder
✦ AI Strategy & Product
💪🏻 Superpowers
Human-AI Systems Thinker
Connecting cognitive science, UX research, and AI strategy
✦ Identifies where AI systems break down because of mismatches between technical capability, human judgment, and real workflows.
✦ Designs research and evaluation approaches that reveal how people actually understand, use, trust, and misuse AI systems.
✦ Turns abstract questions about agency, cognition, and automation into practical product and interaction decisions.
Ambiguity-to-Strategy Translator
Turning messy problems into clearer product direction
✦ Finds the underlying problem when teams are stuck between user needs, technical possibilities, and organizational constraints.
✦ Synthesizes complex research, stakeholder perspectives, and emerging signals into actionable product strategy.
✦ Helps teams distinguish real opportunities from AI hype, weak assumptions, and premature solutioning.
Concept-to-System Builder
Turning cross-disciplinary insight into new tools, interfaces, and systems
✦ Connects philosophy, cognitive science, UX, product strategy, and technical AI work into coherent approaches.
✦ Builds shared language and decision frameworks across researchers, designers, engineers, leaders, and domain experts.
✦ Spots opportunities for new tools, interfaces, and systems by combining conceptual depth with practical product experience.
I'm excited about
✦ Meeting founders building AI products for complex, high-judgment workflows.
✦ Exploring new tools, methods, and interfaces for making AI systems more usable, evaluable, and trustworthy in real organizational contexts.
✦ Connecting with collaborators, design partners, and technical cofounder-type people who are interested in the human side of AI infrastructure.
I can help with
✦ Pressure-testing AI product concepts, especially where user behavior, trust, judgment, or workflow complexity could make or break the product.
✦ Designing research and evaluation approaches for AI systems that need to work in messy, real-world contexts.
✦ Helping teams turn ambiguous human and organizational problems into clearer product strategy, interaction models, and decision frameworks.
I would love your help on
✦ Connecting with technical founders and builders interested in human-AI systems, workflow intelligence, and new interaction models for AI.
✦ Pressure-testing which parts of GraspingAI’s work have the strongest potential to become scalable products, platforms, or infrastructure.
✦ Meeting early design partners, advisors, and investors who understand the gap between impressive AI capabilities and systems that actually work in complex human contexts.