Dr Yuanyuan Lai is a Lecturer in Business Analytics at the Department of Information and Operations Management (DIOM). Yuanyuan holds a PhD in Business and Management, with a focus on Information Systems, from the Queen Mary University of London. Her main research interests include human-chatbot interaction, social robots, and the interface between behavioural healthcare and technologies. Her PhD project work on medical chatbots came before recent advancements in generative AI like ChatGPT. Amongst others, the research project explained how users feel emotionally empowered by such algorithmic services because they are always available and responsive (like ‘a doctor in your pocket’). However, as expected, users are also sceptical of receiving this kind of advice compared to traditional medical services.

Yuanyuan has presented her research outputs at multiple academic conferences including the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), the British Academy of Management (BAM), and the UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS). She has been a board member of the UKAIS since Sep 2023 and is also a member of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) and the British Academy of Management (BAM). 

At Royal Holloway, Yuanyuan teaches MN5804 Responsible Digital Innovation, MN5814 Emerging Technologies in Business, and MN5336 Digital Business and Marketing. Before joining Royal Holloway, Yuanyuan worked at Queen Mary as a teaching associate, delivering seminars for modules including digital marketing, business statistics, and research methods. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). 

In addition, Yuanyuan has served as a reviewer for IS journals such as Decision Support Systems, Information Technology & People and Behaviour & Information Technology, as well as the major IS conferences like International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), and Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS). She was the track chair (Health IT and IS for Healthcare) of UKAIS 2024.