International Postdoctoral Fellowship (GFF-IPF)
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
October 1, 2020
End Date
September 30, 2023
Acronym
GFF-IPF
Status
ongoing
Keywords
Smart Personal Assistants
Affordances
Configurational Analysis
Description
Based on recent technological advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is predicted that Smart Personal Assistants (SPAs) such as Amazon`s Alexa, Google`s Google Assistant, and Apple`s Siri will run on 870 million devices by 2022. This significantly increases the exposure of many to this technology in both B2B and B2C settings, especially when taking the ubiquitous chatbots into account. These Information Systems (IS) provide assistance by engaging with users especially via natural language and have been promised to fundamentally change the ways how we perform tasks, consume services and products, and interact with our environment. However, SPAs face problems in terms of user acceptance and affordance actualization. SPAs represent a novel class of IS that are characterized by high degrees of interaction and intelligence. These capabilities may fundamentally affect how people interact with SPAs as for instance users perceive them as increasingly human and, at the same time, less predictable. Thus, we need to generate insights on how to actualize the affordances offered by SPAs and realize their potential to avoid disuse that would lead to unrealized potential due to the rejection of SPAs. In specific, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the affordances that SPAs provide and how they may contribute to the actual outcomes of SPAs.
Based on these gaps in research, the aim of this project is to reveal which affordances contribute to SPA outcomes and how we leverage affordance actualization. In particular, a configurational, as well as a dynamic approach, is needed for understanding better, how this novel class of AI-based systems is appropriated as a technology-in-use. Therefore, I am providing a conceptual approach for studying SPA affordances, empirical insights on how SPA affordances actualization contributes to SPA outcomes and how companies can manage successful affordance actualization.
To achieve these goals, the proposed Basic Research Fund project first aims to shed light on which affordances are actually offered by this novel class of AI-based systems. For the affordance identification, I intend to review an interdisciplinary body of knowledge to provide a better theoretical understanding concerning the affordances offered and how they relate to the material properties of SPAs. In addition, a series of focus groups are conducted to complement this theoretical perspective with a practical view. On this basis, the project aims to provide a configurational and dynamic account for SPA affordances and their relationship to SPA outcomes. For this purpose, a series of empirical studies are conducted. First, a condition-oriented study aiming to provide empirical insights on relevant SPA affordance configurations to achieve SPA outcomes such as satisfaction and effective use. Second, a case-oriented diary study is conducted to provide insights about the dynamics of SPA affordance configurations and their patterns over time. These empirical insights finally enable to organize affordance actualization of SPAs and to contribute to a successful SPA implementation. Taken together, this project contributes to the body of knowledge by developing a conceptual approach for studying SPA affordances and generating insights on SPA affordance configurations and dynamics of affordances over time. Moreover, the project contributes to theory and practice by providing design principles for SPAs that will be used.
Based on these gaps in research, the aim of this project is to reveal which affordances contribute to SPA outcomes and how we leverage affordance actualization. In particular, a configurational, as well as a dynamic approach, is needed for understanding better, how this novel class of AI-based systems is appropriated as a technology-in-use. Therefore, I am providing a conceptual approach for studying SPA affordances, empirical insights on how SPA affordances actualization contributes to SPA outcomes and how companies can manage successful affordance actualization.
To achieve these goals, the proposed Basic Research Fund project first aims to shed light on which affordances are actually offered by this novel class of AI-based systems. For the affordance identification, I intend to review an interdisciplinary body of knowledge to provide a better theoretical understanding concerning the affordances offered and how they relate to the material properties of SPAs. In addition, a series of focus groups are conducted to complement this theoretical perspective with a practical view. On this basis, the project aims to provide a configurational and dynamic account for SPA affordances and their relationship to SPA outcomes. For this purpose, a series of empirical studies are conducted. First, a condition-oriented study aiming to provide empirical insights on relevant SPA affordance configurations to achieve SPA outcomes such as satisfaction and effective use. Second, a case-oriented diary study is conducted to provide insights about the dynamics of SPA affordance configurations and their patterns over time. These empirical insights finally enable to organize affordance actualization of SPAs and to contribute to a successful SPA implementation. Taken together, this project contributes to the body of knowledge by developing a conceptual approach for studying SPA affordances and generating insights on SPA affordance configurations and dynamics of affordances over time. Moreover, the project contributes to theory and practice by providing design principles for SPAs that will be used.
Leader contributor(s)
Funder
Topic(s)
Actualizing the Potential of Smart Personal Assistants – Investigating Affordance Configurations and their Dynamics for AI-based Systems
Method(s)
Survey
Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Diary Study
Focus Groups
Division(s)
Eprints ID
247948
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Item type:Publication, Mechanisms of Common Ground in Human-Agent Interaction: A Systematic Review of Conversational Agent Research(2023-01-06) - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Designing for Conversational System Trustworthiness: The Impact of Model Transparency on Trust and Task Performance(2022-06-24); ; Designing for system trustworthiness promises to address challenges of opaqueness and uncertainty introduced through Machine Learning (ML)-based systems by allowing users to understand and interpret systems’ underlying working mechanisms. However, empirical exploration of trustworthiness measures and their effectiveness is scarce and inconclusive. We investigated how varying model confidence (70% versus 90%) and making confidence levels transparent to the user (explanatory statement versus no explanatory statement) may influence perceptions of trust and performance in an information retrieval task assisted by a conversational system. In a field experiment with 104 users, our findings indicate that neither model confidence nor transparency seem to impact trust in the conversational system. However, users’ task performance is positively influenced by both transparency and trust in the system. While this study considers the complex interplay of system trustworthiness, trust, and subsequent behavioral outcomes, our results call into question the relation between system trustworthiness and user trust.Type:conference paperJournal:European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, A Review of the Empirical Literature on Conversational Agents and Future Research Directions(2020); ; ; The knowledge base related to user interaction with conversational agents (CAs) has grown dramatically but remains segregated. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review to investigate user interaction with CAs. We examined 107 papers published in outlets related to IS and HCI research. Then, we coded for design elements and user interaction outcomes, and isolated 7 significant determinants of these outcomes, as well as 42 themes with inconsistent evidence, providing grounds for future research. Building upon the insights from the analysis, we propose a research agenda to guide future research surrounding user interaction with CAs. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to the body of knowledge of IS and HCI in general and user interaction with CA in particular by indicating how developed a research field is regarding the number and content of the respective contributions. Furthermore, practitioners benefit from a structured overview related to CA design effects.Type:conference paperJournal:International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, How to Achieve Ethical Persuasive Design: A Review and Theoretical Propositions for Information Systems(2022-12-29); Persuasive system design (PSD) is an umbrella term for designs in information systems (IS) that can influence people’s attitude, behavior, or decision making for better or for worse. On the one hand, PSD can improve users’ engagement and motivation to change their attitude, behavior, or decision making in a favorable way, which can help them achieve a desired outcome and, thus, improve their wellbeing. On the other hand, PSD misuse can lead to unethical and undesirable outcomes, such as disclosing unnecessary information or agreeing to terms that do not favor users, which, in turn, can negatively impact their wellbeing. These powerful persuasive designs can involve concepts such as gamification, gamblification, and digital nudging, which all have become prominent in recent years and have been implemented successfully across different sectors, such as education, e-health, e-governance, e-finance, and digital privacy contexts. However, such persuasive influence on individuals raises ethical questions as PSD can impair users’ autonomy or persuade them towards a third party’s goals and, hence, lead to unethical decision-making processes and outcomes. In human-computer interaction, recent advances in artificial intelligence have made this topic particularly significant. These novel technologies allow one to influence the decisions that users make, to gather data, and to profile and persuade users into unethical outcomes. These unethical outcomes can lead to psychological and emotional damage to users. To understand the role that ethics play in persuasive system design, we conducted an exhaustive systematic literature analysis and 20 interviews to overview ethical considerations for persuasive system design. Furthermore, we derive potential propositions for more ethical PSD and shed light on potential research gaps.Type:journal articleJournal:AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (THCI)Volume:14Issue:4Scopus© Citations 33 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Designing Pedagogical Conversational Agents for Achieving Common Ground(2023); Ralf RummerAs educational organizations face difficulties in providing personalized learning material or individual learning support, pedagogical conversational agents (PCAs) promise individualized learning for students. However, the problem of conversational breakdowns of PCAs and consequently poor learning outcomes still exist. Hence, effective and grounded communication between learners and PCAs is fundamental to improving learning processes and out-comes. As understanding each other and the conversational grounding is crucial for conversations between humans and PCAs, we propose common ground theory as a foundation for designing a PCA. Conducting a design science research project, we propose theory-motivated design principles and instantiate them in a PCA. We evaluate the utility of the artifact with an experimental study in higher education to inform the subsequent design iterations. We contribute design knowledge on conversational agents in learning settings, enabling researchers and practitioners to develop PCAs based on common ground research in education and providing avenues for future research. Thereby, we can secure further understanding of learning processes based on grounding communication.Type:conference paperJournal:International Conference on Design Science Research (DESRIST)Scopus© Citations 13 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, The Role of AI-Based Artifacts’ Voice Capabilities for Agency Attribution(2023-07-04); ; ; 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 articleJournal:Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS)Volume:24Issue:4Scopus© Citations 25 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Female by Default? – Exploring the Effect of Voice Assistant Gender and Pitch on Trait and Trust Attribution(2021-05); ; Scopus© Citations 87 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Ocean activism: understanding political acts in extra-national terrain(2024)From enslaved people capturing vessels during the Middle Passage to Greenpeace’s and Sea Shepherd’s famous anti-whaling campaigns in the latter half of the twentieth century – resistance at sea is a phenomenon that is as old as human seafaring. Yet, while social movement scholars have a long-standing interest in transnational movements and what it means to act politically beyond the borders of nation-states, much less is known about social movements acting outside of national territory, in the international waters of the planetary ocean. This article addresses this gap by bringing the phenomenon of sea-oriented civil society to the attention of social movement scholars and proposing a conceptual framework for understanding ocean activism. Bringing together currently scattered accounts of maritime movements with relevant literature from the recent ocean turn across the social and political sciences, the article argues that we may understand ocean activism along three defining, sea-specific characteristics: (1) material specificity (due to the sea’s elemental qualities), (2) technological dependency (from ships to AIS), and (3) extra-territoriality (outside national jurisdiction). The paper contributes to discussions of transnational social movements in particular, demonstrating that scholarly attention to the ocean enables new perspectives on their spatial politics, media and data practices, and materiality. Thus, addressing social movement scholarship’s terrestrial bias does not only allow us to begin to conceptualize ocean activism but opens up paths to better understand political acts in extra-national terrains, in and beyond the sea.Type:journal articleJournal:Social Movement StudiesScopus© Citations 5 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Exploring the Dynamics of Affordance Actualization – A Configurational View on Voice Assistants(2022-08-09)Voice assistants’ (VAs) increasingly nuanced and natural communication opens up new opportunities for the experience of users, providing task assistance and automation possibilities, and also offer an easy interface to digital services and ecosystems. However, VAs face various problems, such as low adoption and satisfaction rates as well as other negative reactions from users. Companies, therefore, need to consider how individuals utilize VAs and what contributes to user satisfaction. Key for the design of VAs are their unique affordances and their agentic nature that distinguish these IT artifacts from non-agentic IS. A configurative and dynamic approach enables to shed light on the complex causalities underlying user outcomes with these novel systems. Consequently, we examine in this study how individuals actualize the affordances of VAs during the initial adoption stage. For this purpose, we draw on a diary study research design that examines affordance actualization processes with new VA users. We examine with a configurational approach, how the actualization of VA affordances contributes to the outcomes of VAs, i.e., in our case user satisfaction. The results of our diary study show distinct patterns of functional affordance configurations. In addition, we show that affordances unfold and evolve over time. The derived implications provide a configurative theoretical understanding for the role of VAs affordances for user satisfaction that provides practitioners useful guidance to actualize the potential of VAs.Type:conference paperJournal:Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM) - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, How to leverage anthropomorphism for chatbot service interfaces: The interplay of communication style and personificationAlthough chatbots are oftentimes used in customer service encounters, interactions are oftentimes perceived as not satisfactory. One key aspect for designing chatbots is the use of anthropomorphic design elements. In this experimental study, we examine the two anthropomorphic chatbot design elements of personification, which includes a human-like appearance, and social orientation of communication style, which means a more sensitive and extensive communication. We tested the influence of the two design elements on social presence, satisfaction, trust and empathy towards a chatbot. First, the results show a significant influence of both anthropomorphic design elements on social presence. Second, our findings illustrate that social presence influences trusting beliefs, empathy, and satisfaction. Third, social presence acts as a mediator for both anthropomorphic design elements for satisfaction with a chatbot. Our implications provide a better understanding of anthropomorphic chatbot design elements when designing chatbots for short-term interactions, and we offer actionable implications for practice that enable more effective chatbot implementations.Type:journal articleJournal:Computers in Human BehaviorVolume:149Scopus© Citations 164
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