Nick Kabrel

About me

I'm a doctoral researcher at the University of Zurich and a Digital Society Initiative (DSI) Excellence Fellow. My work sits at the intersection of psychology and technology, where I explore how humans and AI can learn, grow, and create together. At the heart of my approach is a simple principle: innovation should always serve human development and well-being.

This perspective has led me to work across different domains like mental health, leadership, and education, always with the same focus on understanding how people change, adapt, and thrive in complex environments.

Beyond my scientific work, I regularly write featured articles for popular outlets and give talks at various conferences and forums. My pieces have appeared in Psychology Today, Psyche, Training Industry, and The European Business Review, with several more in progress.

Before entering academia, I worked as a counseling/coaching psychologist, both in private practice and with the Football Club "Shakhtar." Although my passport name is Mykyta, everyone calls me Nick.

My research

I am an interdisciplinary researcher working across mental health, conversational AI, education, and organizational behavior — always with the goal of understanding how people grow and how technology can support that process.

Over the past years, I have:

Developed together with my co-author and mentor, Jaan Aru, a novel neurocognitive framework for understanding the process and mechanisms of psychotherapy — published in the leading journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Together with colleagues from Stanford and Tartu, we suggested a framework for integrating conversational AI into real-world mental healthcare systems — currently under review.

Studied how awareness develops in therapy, analyzing interviews with counseling clients to map the mechanisms behind insight experiences — currently under review.

Investigated how organizations adopt AI, introducing the idea of an "AI use culture" that shapes whether chatbots help or hinder creativity, learning, and well-being — respective pieces published in Training Industry Inc., and The European Business Review.

Worked on human-centred AI in education, focusing on how universities and vocational schools can integrate AI in ways that empower rather than deskill learners.

What connects these projects is a central question:

How can we design technology that enhances human awareness, growth, and creativity, instead of reducing them?