Constructive human-AI collaboration

The idea outline focuses on identifying the skills that empower humans and AI to cooperate constructively and on developing human-centric design recommendations. Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, the University of Hohenheim, the FOM University of Applied Sciences and the company youCcom GmbH have set their sights on the considered, sustainable and effective use of AI to stop people being strained by the technology that is penetrating into our lives and the world of work.

Collage of portrait photos of different men and women. — The team of the project idea 'Constructive human-AI collaboration'

Why are you a strong team?

Our team is highly interdisciplinary and crosses different sectors. The university representatives bring along expertise in digital transformation in the world of work and in stress research, while youCcom GmbH enriches the project with practical experience in organisational and skill development. The Ostwestfalen Chamber of Commerce is also supporting us as another multiplier along with start-ups AiZUBI UG and ARTiTEX GmbH, with expertise in developing, designing and launching AI systems at companies.

Explain your idea in three sentences.

Because AI systems are increasingly acting on their own initiative, cooperative forms of collaboration between humans and AI are arising at workplaces and they can cause acute or chronic stress for employees. The idea is to suggest solutions for preventing inappropriate human strain in human–AI cooperation. To this end, important skills for constructive cooperation between humans and AI are identified and human-centric design recommendations developed.

What makes your idea special?

The plan is to collect data with digital technologies, e.g. wearables, letting lifelogs be used to measure stress. This offers greater precision than classic data collection instruments. Specific situations can also be identified better through continuous measurement. The issues of stress, skill development and human-centric technology design are, for the first time, being studied in an integrated way in a context of human–AI cooperation.

What are the next steps?

Through joint workshops, we in the team will keep working on fleshing out our approach and develop precise specifications as to how we can achieve our envisioned project goals. To this end, we will integrate innovative data collection methods with the communication of our findings to practical settings in a targeted manner.