I am now well on my way with the start of a new trend report (Future of HumAIn Work) and as I research the topic more, I am writing posts and capturing input for the report. The link is to a page summarising the main topic and captures these posts too. I have done this with all my trend reports, I am merely working out loud and collating all the input (research) for these posts.

So in this post I just want to highlight two main aspects of investigation that will likely form part of the trend report.

The dynamics of human and AI interactions as research subject

I unfortunately cannot share details of a piece of research I have been privy to as a result of working at Microsoft (disclosure).

Suffice it to say that Microsoft invests heavily in Future of Work Research and has created a new theme around AI and the new Future of Work and is awarding grants to promising research in this area.

I listened to a presentation by one of the recipients, Noshir Contractor from Northwestern University covering his study: Deciphering the Structural Signatures of High-Performing Human-AI Teams

You can find out about both the research program and the recipients here: AI and the New Future of Work – Microsoft Research.

Here is a description of the research and you should see why I think this area will be crucial to my report:

This research project explores the dynamics of human-AI collaboration in problem-solving and creative thinking tasks. We will extend our prior Human-Autonomy Teaming research that studied human-AI teams with the help of Wizard-of-Oz methodology. We will replace human confederates with an LLM powered AI teammate. We will experiment with task types and AI teammate functions to examine how people orient themselves toward intelligent machine teammates and how technology can be designed to be a collaborator, not a chatbot. Participants will communicate in a group chat environment while conducting tasks, and their experiences, performance, and social interactions will be digitally traced, surveyed, analyzed, and compared to identify the mechanisms of high-performing human-AI teams.

A key difference of this research is that it looks at AI beyond the standard forms as an assistant or tool (of the Siri, Alexa or chatbot type) and viewing it as a bona fide team mate to humans. Super interesting.

The convergence of technologies supporting human AI practices

At work I am also very fortunate to be at the centre of some of this converging technology. By that I mean the coming together of Microsoft’s employee experience platform called Viva and its AI technology dubbed CoPilot.

This is very well explained in this announcement post: Boost engagement with Copilot in Microsoft Viva | Microsoft 365 Blog

Microsoft Viva is very much focused on supporting the human or employee experience within organisations, ultimately to drive high performance which I wrote about recently here: The paradox of performance in the workplace.

While not easy to achieve, hence a paradox, I think it is crucial to consider aspects in which AI will augment this performance.

So this application of research learning and technology in practice learning are going to be crucial areas of future investigation for me.