Workshop Topic and Goals

Over the last few years, automated systems have been becoming integral to various facets of society, from individual households to corporate environments and government institutions. As these systems proliferate and become accessible to a broader audience, investigating the users' "Automation Experience" is critical to understanding such systems' requirements, design principles, and user experience factors.

During this expansion, we are witnessing significant advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. The integration of AI into automated systems enhances their capabilities, allowing them to perform more complex tasks that were previously often reserved for humans. For example, with the development of state-of-the-art (generative) AI, these systems now possess sophisticated creative and intellectual capabilities (e.g., drawing, coding, idea generation, planning, etc.). These recent developments allow for a more dynamic and enhanced interplay of humans and (semi-)automated systems forming "hybrid teams" where human and AI-based members cooperate to achieve common goals. To ensure effective, meaningful, and sound teamwork and thus to fully exploit the potential of such hybrid teams, understanding the dynamics and mechanisms between humans and AI-based automated systems is paramount.

The objectives of the workshop are as follows:
  • Facilitate the exchange of recent research findings, methodologies, and advancements related to hybrid automation experiences,
  • Discuss major challenges regarding the communication, coordination, and collaboration in hybrid human-AI teams,
  • Identify promising future research topics in the form of project ideas and a research agenda,
  • Expand and strengthen a multi-disciplinary network of automation experience researchers.
Recent and Previous Activities of the Automation Experience Initiative

Areas of Interest

In the workshop, we will elaborate on the following three core challenges within human-AI teams. Example research questions include:

Communication in Hybrid Teams

  • How can we exploit new modalities to communicate naturally and interact efficiently within hybrid teams?
  • What effects do different communication patterns have on the experience of human group members?
  • How can we create a shared understanding within hybrid teams and maintain it in dynamic environments and situations?

Coordination in Hybrid Teams

  • How can we design adaptive coordination mechanisms for human-AI teams considering the unique capabilities of human and automated partners?
  • In what ways does the allocation of tasks between humans and AI systems influence user satisfaction and overall quality of automation experiences?
  • What strategies can create engaging automation experiences that maintain meaningful human involvement and ensure appropriate oversight?

Collaboration in Hybrid Teams

  • How can we design collaboration scenarios that leverage the rising capabilities of AI while ensuring a pleasant automation experience?
  • How does the nature of collaboration between users and automated systems evolve with technological advancements?
  • What strategies can ensure the reliable integration of automated systems into human workflows?

Call for Participation

As automated systems and AI-assisted workflows transition from support tools to integral collaborators in "hybrid" human-AI teams, they present new challenges and opportunities in the field of Automation Experience. This workshop addresses these developments by exploring how hybrid teams can effectively communicate, coordinate, and collaborate while emphasizing the design of automated systems that enhance user capabilities, preserve human autonomy, and foster satisfactory automation experiences. By extending the concept of Automation Experience to hybrid human-AI teams, the workshop seeks to identify innovative research directions, develop a forward-looking research agenda, and strengthen a multidisciplinary network of researchers.

We invite participants to submit position papers outlining their recent or forthcoming research in this area to spark discussions on the design of automation systems that enhance user autonomy, prevent over-reliance, and foster meaningful collaborative outcomes. In agreement with the authors, accepted position papers will be published in CEUR Workshop Proceedings.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to
  • Effective communication strategies in hybrid human-AI teams
  • Coordination and task allocation between human and AI participants
  • Methods for coping with the collaborative dynamics between users and AI systems
  • Ensuring user autonomy and critical thinking while working with advanced AI systems
  • Addressing the risks of over-reliance on AI-based automation
  • Designing automation that complements human capabilities and maintains meaningful engagement
  • Designing intuitive user interfaces for seamless interaction with automated systems in hybrid teams
  • Designing coordination mechanisms and allocation strategies within human-AI teams to balance task distribution
  • Enhancing user adaptability to evolving AI system capabilities over time
Submission and Participation
  • Papers must be formatted according to the one-column CEUR-ART style and comprise up to 6 pages (excl. references) (templates for Overleaf, Word, and LibreOffice).
  • Position papers must be submitted in PDF format (non-anonymized) to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=automationxp25.
  • The submissions will be reviewed by the organizers (and additional experts, if required) based on relevance, originality, significance and quality.
  • Upon acceptance, at least one author of each accepted position paper must attend the workshop.
Important Dates
  • Submission of position papers: March 7th 2025
  • Decision to authors: March 21st 2025
  • Camera-ready versions due: April 9th 2025
  • Workshop: April 27th 2025

Schedule

JST (Yokohama)
9:00am – 9:45am Welcome and introduction
9:45am – 10:30am Keynote by Albrecht Schmidt (Slides)
10:30am – 11:10am ☕ Coffee break
11:10am – 12:40pm Paper madness
12:40pm – 2:10pm 🥢 Lunch break
2:10pm – 2:55pm Round table discussion (1)
2:55pm – 3:40pm Round table discussion (2)
3:40pm – 4:20pm ☕ Coffee break
4:20pm – 5:05pm Group work on selected challenges
5:05pm – 5:20pm Wrap-up and closing

Keynote: From Automation and Augmentation to Delegation and Human-AI Collaborative Cognition

Albrecht

Albrecht Schmidt

LMU, Germany

Abstract

With new AI systems, we expect a transition from tools that enable automation and augmentation to systems that become our partners. Collaborative partners in cognition and execution, changing the nature of human-AI relationships. We are moving beyond assistance. AI is increasingly capable of reasoning, decision making and creative problem solving, enabling coarse-grained autonomous action. In such a context, how do we design systems that support meaningful human involvement? How can we facilitate effective delegation of tasks and decisions to AI? What new interaction paradigms will emerge that enable trust and shared understanding? Can there be effective and meaningful teamwork between humans and AI? This talk raises fundamental questions about how we want to move beyond automation and explores ideas for human-AI collaborative cognition. We discuss strategies to ensure hybrid automation experiences that are empowering for users and aligned with human values.

Short Bio

Albrecht Schmidt is Professor of Computer Science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, where he holds the Chair for Human-Centered Ubiquitous Media. His research and teaching interests are human-centered artificial intelligence, intelligent interactive systems, ubiquitous computing, digital media technologies, and digital technologies for human augmentation. He studied computer science in Ulm and Manchester and received his PhD from Lancaster University in 2003. Albrecht was the conference co-chair of the ACM SIGCHI 2023 conference, he is on the editorial board of the ACM TOCHI journal, and he is the co-founder of the ACM conference TEI and Automotive User interfaces. He was inducted into the ACM SIGCHI Academy in 2018, elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2020, and named an ACM Fellow in 2023.

Position Papers

General Insights

Generative AI

Automation in Specific Domains

Human-Robot Interaction

Automation Experience in Specific Situations

Organizers & Contact

In case you have questions regarding the workshop, feel free to contact the organizers.

Philipp

Philipp Spitzer

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Matthias

Matthias Baldauf

Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

Philippe

Philippe Palanque

Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III, France

Virpi

Virpi Roto

Aalto University, Finland

Katelyn

Katelyn Morrison

Carnegie Mellon University, USA

Domenique

Domenique Zipperling

University of Bayreuth, Germany

Joshua

Joshua Holstein

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany