AI Humanisation
Scaling AI is just the beginning. Connecting it with human psychology is where outcomes happen.
Whether your priority is exponential growth, maximising audience engagement, or building an outstanding culture, AI Humanisation is the fastest route to get there.
The research is clear: the brands that combine AI with a deep understanding of psychology will outperform the rest.
Behavioural science is already revealing the distortions embedded within AI systems. From ‘AI sycophancy’, where LLMs affirm users’ existing beliefs, to ‘information density’, where the volume of claims drives persuasion ahead of accuracy, these models reflect the biases of their training data at scale.
As users drift into ‘cognitive surrender’, defaulting to AI with an uncritical acceptance of its outputs, these distortions compound. Scrutiny declines. And decision quality is ever-more compromised.
To deliver tangible business outcomes, artificial intelligence must be overlaid with human intelligence.
Providing the combination you need: AI agility and psychological literacy
When human and artificial intelligence combine, they act as reciprocal force multipliers. Human intelligence is amplified by the speed, scale and efficiency gains of AI systems. While artificial intelligence is elevated by the wisdom, invention and emotion of humans.
This is the balance that defines ‘AI Humanisation’ - our unique specialism at Cognition.
Our outcomes in this area are far-reaching, but the four core capabilities are:
Human-Centric Prompt Engineering
We equip your teams to recognise and manage the behavioural biases inherent in generative AI and agentic systems. From there, we design robust prompting frameworks that improve accuracy, consistency and control..
AI Roadmapping with Psychology
We assess your AI strategy through a behavioural lens, ensuring adoption, experimentation and scaling are aligned with how people actually think and act. We then strengthen implementation through applied organisational psychology.
AI Brand and Creative Testing
Using our proprietary ‘AI Story System’, we evaluate the psychological effectiveness of your creative output. We then refine your brand across channels, ensuring it remains persuasive, distinctive and resilient in an AI-mediated world.
Agentic AI Development
In partnership with our sister agency, Nexa AI Lab, we identify high-value opportunities for agentic AI automation across your organisation. We then move rapidly from concept to prototype, turning potential into operational capability.
Cognition is part of the DXG Group, partnering with 7 agencies across the UK, EMEA, US & APAC, making it a truly global brand.
Alongside the Cognition Scientific Board with 300+ papers in peer-reviewed journals, we have the skill and scale to solve any marketing and sales problem, for any organisation, anywhere in the world.
Dr. Peter Hughes
Psychologist, Chair & CEO of Cognition
Amit Vyas
Founder & CEO at NEXA
Andrew Thomas
Managing Director at MAZ NEXA
Dr. Carl Senior
Behavioural Scientist
Dr. Sylvia Wong
Computer Scientist & Software Engineer
Dr. Kanimozhi Narayanan
Organsiational Psychologist
Dr. Charlotte Pennington
Social Psychologist
Dr. Daniel J. Shaw
Cognitive Neuroscientist
Psychologist, Chair & CEO of Cognition
Dr. Peter Hughes
Dr. Peter Hughes
Dr. Peter Hughes is a specialist in communication psychology with a particular interest in brand psychology. He founded the Cognition Scientific Board, now acknowledged as the UK’s foremost board of advisors with expertise in psychology, neuroscience and statistics.
Peter has managed over 200 research, messaging, segmentation and growth projects for clients in more than 25 countries in EMEA, UAE, US, LATAM and APAC. He has appeared in more than 60 television documentaries, delivers talks and runs workshops in the UK and internationally on psychology, decision science and leadership.
Founder & CEO at NEXA
Amit Vyas
Amit Vyas
Amit Vyas is the Founder & CEO at NEXA based in Dubai, a digital and growth marketing agency, which was founded in 2005 as well as the Founder & CEO at Pure Minds Academy and hold a number of Director/Board positions in the UK, KSA and USA through our business portfolio at NEXA.
Amit is passionate about disruption, driving growth & innovation in the digital marketing and education sectors. With over two decades of experience in leading multi-award-winning teams, his mission is to empower businesses and individuals to achieve their full potential through cutting-edge strategies and transformative learning experiences.
Managing Director at MAZ NEXA
Andrew Thomas
Andrew Thomas
Andrew Thomas is the Managing Director at MAZ NEXA in Riyadh. Andrew is passionate about helping individuals, brands, and businesses grow every day. Whether it’s solving complex challenges, uncovering new opportunities, or driving measurable impact, I’m motivated by seeing real change through our work.
At MAZ NEXA, their diverse team blends strategy, creativity, and technology to deliver meaningful growth. Based in Riyadh, they stay close to our partners across the region — combining local understanding with a global perspective.
With over 15 years in the digital space, they’ve learned how to adapt, innovate, and turn insight into action. Their focus is simple: deliver growth, whatever form it takes.
Behavioural Scientist
Dr. Carl Senior
Dr. Carl Senior
Carl completed his PhD at the University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Visiting Professor at the Laboratory of Brain & Cognition at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA.
He specialises in the understanding of non-verbal behaviour and the skills, traits, and motives associated with social dominance, power and leadership. He is the Associate Editor for a number of Journals including Cognitive Neuroscience and The Leadership Quarterly.
Carl has published 112 papers in peer reviewed journals and contributed chapters to several books.
In the field of Organisational Psychology, he was one of the first to develop a framework for applying the nominal group technique (NGT) to understanding mechanisms for organisational change in focus groups.
Computer Scientist & Software Engineer
Dr. Sylvia Wong
Dr. Sylvia Wong
Sylvia completed her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Birmingham.
She has expertise in database and data warehouse design for data mining, and is experienced in modelling / structuring complex data to facilitate data processing in addition to web-based software development, including the necessary security issues.
She has experience in working with industry to bring about process efficiency and developing new business capability through collaborating with various small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on government-funded knowledge transfer partnership projects.
She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and is passionate about educating next generation Software Engineers.
Organsiational Psychologist
Dr. Kanimozhi Narayanan
Dr. Kanimozhi Narayanan
Kani is a work psychologist and a Lecturer in Organisation Behavior with a PhD from University of Edinburgh.
Her research specifically focuses on exploring employee workplace behaviour working across industries and cultures. In addition, her research strength lies within the nature of understanding employee-organisation relationship with majority of her work focusing on leadership, workplace deviance, use of AI/technology for work, neurodiversity and its impact of on organisational behaviour.
Kani's skills are especially relevant for organisations to understand their current culture and how to develop positive change and employee engagement.
Social Psychologist
Dr. Charlotte Pennington
Dr. Charlotte Pennington
Charlotte is an experimental social psychologist interested in how people's complex social environments impact upon their health and wellbeing.
One theme of Charlotte's research focuses on the psychological and contextual factors that influence addictive behaviours. For example, she is interested in how people's attention is drawn to environmental cues how this influences their proclivity to (mis)use substances. Another theme of Charlotte's research investigates how people process, remember, and use information in social contexts to explain their own behaviour and that of others ("social cognition"). In particular, Charlotte is interested in how social cognition develops, and is altered, through health and disease.
Charlotte is also an expert in Open Science: she is Aston University's Local Network Lead for the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN), a member of the Framework for Open & Reproducible Research Training (FORRT), and an Action Editor for Registered Reports for Addiction Research & Theory, and Peer Community In.
Charlotte is also the Author of "A Student's Guide to Open Science: How the Replication Crisis can Reform Psychology", published by Open University Press.
Charlotte has significant range of skills for the development of organisational culture; specifically, how organisations can engage with employees to promote health and well-being.
Cognitive Neuroscientist
Dr. Daniel J. Shaw
Dr. Daniel J. Shaw
Daniel is a social cognitive neuroscientist - a psychologist who uses various neuroimaging techniques to investigate the brain systems that guide and regulate our behaviour in social situations.
Currently, he is developing "hyperscanning" paradigms - interpersonal contexts in which brain function can be measured from two interacting individuals. This allows him to explore the brain systems supporting social behaviour while they operate in real time.
Dr Shaw's work is specifically valuable to study the effectiveness of messaging and how it can be harnessed to develop positive behavioural change, both at the individual and interpersonal level.Let’s start the conversation
Intrigued by our approach? Curious to know how Cognition can support your specific challenges? Submit the form to start the conversation.
Alternatively, you can reach out to us at:
Birmingham: +44 121 368 7521
London: +44 20 4586 1470
