Kate Letheren

Dr Kate Letheren is an Associate Professor within the Discipline of Marketing and Entrepreneurship within the Peter Faber Business School at Australian Catholic University (ACU). Kate is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at QUT Business School. Before joining ACU in May 2024, Kate was a researcher with the Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology at QUT. Kate works with academic and industry/government teams to uncover how people interact with humanised technology, and importantly, how such technology can be designed to enhance wellbeing at the individual and societal level.

Kate’s research applies a human-centred lens to technology design, with her consumer psychology and services marketing expertise guiding experiments into how consumers trust and interact with humanised technologies like robots or AI. Kate’s research investigates opportunities for humanised technologies to make consumer lives better – examining issues like how we will treat a robot that makes mistakes, or whether we want to talk to the robot making us dinner. These studies inform the design and implementation of humanised technologies to help us in our homes and cities.

Dr Letheren has worked with more than 20 government and industry partners including Queensland Health, Australian Retailer’s Association and the Department of Transport and Main Roads. Her work has been published in journals such as the European Journal of Marketing and Tourism Management. She is an Associate Editor with the Journal of Services Marketing. Dr Letheren also holds a research interest in marketing education. She sits on the editorial board for the Marketing Education Review and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.