Artificial Intelligence in the treatment and analysis of qualitative information: a change of perspective

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool that has gone from being a novelty to an almost ubiquitous technology in the last 5 years. It is undeniable that it is also a very controversial technology. There are those who praise it and those who abhor it, going through all the variants in between. In many cases, it is teachers and researchers who have a position against the tool, especially those with a career in the process of consolidation or already consolidated. This work tries to show how AI, especially generative AI (IAGen) can be implemented as what it is: one more tool. It is proposed to consider Jack Mezirow's transformative learning theory, where a key first step is required: a disorienting situation that makes the subject question his own practices. Through practical examples of the use of IAGen in steps of treatment and analysis of qualitative information, it is attempted to demonstrate that IAGen is not at odds with research work; on the contrary, it is an area of opportunities for researchers and research students. However, it is critical that a series of steps proposed by Mezirow be carried out in order to reach a learning process where the final objective is not the forced change of practices, but the introspection and analysis of the subject's actions from a new point of view.