Kai Eckes

M. Sc.
(external PhD student)

Research Interests

My research examines how human-AI interaction shapes investment and purchase decisions, and which configurations of collaboration lead to better outcomes. Building on a background in business, banking, and finance, I focus on three areas:

• Process and collaboration: How the collaboration is structured once AI enters investment and purchase decisions: how advisor-only, LLM-only, and hybrid configurations divide the work, how much people delegate as AI shifts from advising to acting, and when humans want to be in the loop versus when they optimally should be.
• Cognitive framing and debiasing: What happens in the reasoning behind these decisions: whether LLMs help people overcome documented behavioural-finance biases (loss aversion, anchoring, mental accounting), amplify them by mirroring human priors, or introduce biases of their own, and how far LLM reasoning can model the cognition behind financial choices.
• Decision outcomes: What those configurations actually deliver: their effect on decision quality, calibration, and appropriate reliance, and on who is accountable when AI acts, with the aim of identifying which configurations of collaboration yield the best outcomes (e.g., return on investment), and at what cost.

Supervision of Theses and Guided Research

I supervise a limited number of Master's theses and guided research projects, selectively and subject to capacity. I am glad to consider topics that align closely with my research interests, but only after prior coordination. If this fits, please reach out by email with a short outline of your idea, your CV, and your transcript of records. Please note that my supervisory capacity is limited and I may not be able to accommodate every request.