Anuschka Schmitt
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Schmitt
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Anuschka
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anuschka.schmitt@unisg.ch
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+41 71 224 3225

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  • Publication
    The Role of AI-Based Artifacts’ Voice Capabilities for Agency Attribution
    ( 2023-07-04)
    Anuschka Schmitt
    ;
    Naim Zierau
    ;
    Andreas Janson
    ;
    Jan Marco Leimeister
    The pervasiveness and increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI)-based artifacts within private, organizational, and social realms change how humans interact with machines. Theorizing about the way humans perceive AI-based artifacts is crucial to understanding why and to what extent humans deem these as competent for, i.e., decision-making, yet has traditionally taken a modality-agnostic view. In this paper, we theorize about a particular case of interaction, namely that of voice-based interaction with AI-based artifacts. The capabilities and perceived naturalness of such artifacts, fueled by continuous advances in natural language processing, induce users to deem an artifact as able to act autonomously in a goal-oriented manner. We argue that there is a positive direct relationship between the voice capabilities of an artifact and users’ agency attribution, ultimately obscuring the artifact’s true nature and competencies. This relationship is further moderated by an artifact’s actual agency, uncertainty, and user characteristics.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS)
    Volume: 24
    Issue: 4
    URL: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol24/iss4/7/
    DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00827
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117368
    Scopus© Citations 3
  • Publication
    Charting the Evolution and Future of Conversational Agents: A Research Agenda Along Five Waves and New Frontiers
    (Springer Nature, 2023-04-20)
    Schöbel, Sofia
    ;
    Schmitt, Anuschka
    ;
    Benner, Dennis
    ;
    Saqr, Mohammed
    ;
    Janson, Andreas
    ;
    Leimeister, Jan Marco
    Conversational agents (CAs) have come a long way from their first appearance in the 1960s to today's generative models. Continuous technological advancements such as statistical computing and large language models allow for an increasingly natural and effortless interaction, as well as domain-agnostic deployment opportunities. Ultimately, this evolution begs multiple questions: How have technical capabilities developed? How is the nature of work changed through humans' interaction with conversational agents? How has research framed dominant perceptions and depictions of such agents? And what is the path forward? To address these questions, we conducted a bibliometric study including over 5000 research articles on CAs. Based on a systematic analysis of keywords, topics, and author networks, we derive "five waves of CA research" that describe the past, present, and potential future of research on CAs. Our results highlight fundamental technical evolutions and theoretical paradigms in CA research. Therefore, we discuss the moderating role of big technologies, and novel technological advancements like OpenAI GPT or BLOOM NLU that mark the next frontier of CA research. We contribute to theory by laying out central research streams in CA research, and offer practical implications by highlighting the design and deployment opportunities of CAs.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Information Systems Frontiers (Inf Syst Front)
    Volume: 26
    URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10796-023-10375-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10796-023-10375-9
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117211
    Scopus© Citations 16
  • Publication
    Conversational Agents for Information Retrieval in the Education Domain: A User-Centered Design Investigation
    ( 2022-11-11)
    Schmitt, Anuschka
    ;
    Wambsganss, Thiemo
    ;
    Leimeister, Jan Marco
    Text-based conversational agents (CAs) are widely deployed across a number of daily tasks, including information retrieval. However, most existing agents follow a default design that disregards user needs and preferences, ultimately leading to a lack of usage and an unsatisfying user experience. To better understand how CAs can be designed in order to lead to effective system use, we deduced relevant design requirements from both literature and 13 user interviews. We built and tested a question-answering, text-based CA for an information retrieval task in an education scenario. Results from our experimental test with 41 students indicate that following a user-centered design has a significant positive effect on enjoyment and trust in a CA as opposed to deploying a default CA. If not designed with the user in mind, CAs are not necessarily more beneficial than traditional question-answering systems. Beyond practical implications for effective CA design, this paper points towards key challenges and potential research avenues when deploying social cues for CAs.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI)
    Volume: 6
    Issue: CSCW2
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3555587
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/108079
  • Publication
    Voice bots on the frontline: Voice-based interfaces enhance flow-like consumer experiences & boost service outcomes
    ( 2022-06-21)
    Zierau, Naim
    ;
    Hildebrand, Christian Alexander
    ;
    Bergner, Anouk Samantha
    ;
    Busquet I Segui, Francesc
    ;
    Schmitt, Anuschka
    ;
    Leimeister, Jan Marco
    Voice-based interfaces provide new opportunities for firms to interact with consumers along the customer journey. The current work demonstrates across four studies that voice-based (as opposed to text-based) interfaces promote more flow-like user experiences, resulting in more positively-valenced service experiences, and ultimately more favorable behavioral firm outcomes (i.e., contract renewal, conversion rates, and consumer sentiment). Moreover, we also provide evidence for two important boundary conditions that reduce such flow-like user experiences in voice-based interfaces (i.e., semantic disfluency and the amount of conversational turns). The findings of this research highlight how fundamental theories of human communication can be harnessed to create more experiential service experiences with positive downstream consequences for consumers and firms. These findings have important practical implications for firms that aim at leveraging the potential of voice-based interfaces to improve consumers' service experiences and the theory-driven ''conversational design'' of voice-based interfaces.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS)
    Volume: 51
    Issue: 4
    URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-022-00868-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11747-022-00868-5
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/108596
    Scopus© Citations 22