Towards Sustainable Human-Agent Teams: A Framework for Understanding Human-Agent Team Dynamics

Rui Prada, Astrid C. Homan, Gerben A. van Kleef

Abstract: Human-agent teamwork is a promising research stream with great potential to impact society. Research on collaborative AI and human-agent interaction has tackled the problem from several perspectives, but we argue that a focus on teams as a unit and a model for human-agent team dynamics is missing. Such a focus is particularly relevant if we aim at involving agents as active team members and at building sustainable teams over time. A team perspective on human-agent collaboration requires new models that pose challenges for AI and humans alike. AI needs new models to build an understanding of team level variables, such as team structure and cohesion, to be able to monitor the team and act on the team beyond performing the task. Humans, in turn, need to be able to incorporate agents as team members in their mental models of teamwork and integrate them into team processes. Such human-agent team dynamics models should be built taking into account four different levels: individual, interpersonal, team, and organisational. We believe that to fulfill this vision we need to bring together the different fields of AI and social sciences.