Personally I think you would be better off using AI later on in the process. Read the transcript, find the quotes that are related, then stick them into an AI to see if they suggest themes/sub themes. At this point you will have knowledge of your transcripts and can make adjustments. LLMs are also going to be much better at naming themes than identifying themes from within multiple transcripts, which it would only do at the most superficial level. No AI has the ability to do this. They just aren't designed to. If you use AI too early you limit yourself. You know what the literature already says, the AI won't know that the 85th line is very similar to what was mentioned as a limitation in Smith (1998) and so won't flag that. In addition, using AI can bias you when you do get round to doing your own analysis. You are more likely to find things that match the themes it has identified, which, as we have already established, will be superficial. Answer from sendmethere on reddit.com