Business PhD Spotlight: Qiao Liu

Qiao Liu is currently a PhD candidate in marketing at the Alberta School of Business. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she earned her Master’s degree in Social Sciences (Psychology) from the University of Chicago and her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Her academic journey has been guided by a deep curiosity about how people make decisions and form judgements in complex environments, and how these decisions and judgements shape both individual well-being and broader social outcomes.

Liu’s current research investigates how emerging technologies like AI can reshape consumer behavior and business strategies. Specifically, she examines how consumers or individuals perceive fairness, control, and accountability when algorithms are used to make or assist in important decisions, particularly in high-stakes contexts such as employment, education, and finance.

In a recent project, she finds that strong applicants who are highly qualified for big opportunities (like getting a job, a loan, or into a good college) would rather be judged by a computer program (an algorithm) than by a person. This project suggests that the choice of evaluation method (algorithmic vs. human) is not merely an operational decision but can also be a strategic tool for shaping the quality and composition of applicant pools.

In another research project, she finds that people believe they deserve more credit and bonuses for AI-assisted knowledge work than they think their peers do when others are also working with AI. While this egocentric bias can also happen in human-human collaboration, she finds that this bias is amplified in an AI-human collaboration setting. The study suggests that adding AI to the workplace, while helpful, can accidentally make people feel things are unfair when working in teams. This is because in an AI-human collaboration setting, people overvalue their own human role, but undervalue it when the ‘human’ is other team members, which can lead to conflicts over rewards and recognition. “My work aims to provide actionable insights that equip organizations and policymakers to navigate technological change in ways that increase economic benefits and enhance collective welfare,” says Liu.

Looking ahead, her research program will investigate AI's impact across two interconnected levels:

• At the micro level, how consumers perceive and respond to AI within their daily experiences, social relationships, and information environments.
• At the macro level, how these technologies are reshaping broader human systems, from cognitive patterns like attention and memory to our social structures, and how people can guide this evolution toward collective well-being.

Liu chose the Alberta School of Business for its collaborative research culture and strong emphasis on rigorous, interdisciplinary inquiry. She values the opportunity to work alongside scholars who bring diverse perspectives from psychology, economics, and data science, and appreciates the School’s commitment to producing research that contributes to both academic knowledge and societal progress.

Qiao Liu joined the Alberta School of Business in 2020 as a PhD student in marketing and is supervised by associate professor Noah Castelo.