How do People Perceive the Role of AI in Human-AI Collaboration to Solve Everyday Tasks?
Abstract
Recent technological advances in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have led to the proliferation of AI-powered decision support systems. This partially explains the HCI research community’s increased interest in investigating how to design systems that will optimise Human-AI collaboration. However, most studies predominately focus on the work environment in which domain experts interact with AI systems to solve relatively well-defined tasks. In this paper, we explore Human AI collaboration involving non-domain experts in the everyday task of waste sorting for recycling. We conducted a study in which 35 participants completed a waste sorting task using Waste Wizard, an AI-infused prototype that we developed. We present the results of our qualitative analysis based on follow-up interviews aiming to understand how our participants perceived the role of the AI system during their collaboration. Our results show four distinct roles (Mirror, Assistant, Guide, and Oracle) that our participants ascribed to the AI system.
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Comparative research on metaphors for AI has demonstrated the impact metaphors can have on user interactions with task-based AI systems.
“Comparative research on metaphors for AI has demonstrated the impact metaphors can have on user interactions with task-based AI systems, e.g., AI that assists with well-defined tasks such as travel planning [32] or waste sorting [46].”
From Where Do I 'Add the Egg'?: Exploring Agency and Ownership in AI Creative Co-Writing Systems (2026) · cites this paper as [46]
Interface metaphors, whether explicitly assigned by designers or implicitly adopted by users, significantly influence users' perceptions and interactions with AI systems.
“This comparative research has shown that interface metaphors, whether explicitly assigned by designers or implicitly adopted by users, significantly influence users' perceptions and interactions with AI systems.”
From Where Do I 'Add the Egg'?: Exploring Agency and Ownership in AI Creative Co-Writing Systems (2026) · cites this paper as [46]
Users have been found to project their own metaphors onto AI, which influenced their interactions.
“Users have also been found to project their own metaphors onto AI, which influenced their interactions [11, 46].”
From Where Do I 'Add the Egg'?: Exploring Agency and Ownership in AI Creative Co-Writing Systems (2026) · cites this paper as [46]
Cites
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Algorithms in practice: Comparing web journalism and criminal justice
Christin, A. (2017) · Big Data & Society · doi:10.1177/2053951717718855 · Cited by 379 · see citing works
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Where Do I 'Add the Egg'?: Exploring Agency and Ownership in AI Creative Co-Writing Systems
Carrera, D., Thomas-Mitchell, J., & Wigdor, D. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3791952 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Comparative research on metaphors for AI has demonstrated the impact metaphors can have on user interactions with task-based AI systems, e.g., AI that assists with well-defined tasks such as travel planning [36] or waste sorting [52].”
Where Do I 'Add the Egg'?: Exploring Agency and Ownership in AI Creative Co-Writing Systems
Carrera, D., Thomas-Mitchell, J., & Wigdor, D. (2025) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.15440
- Authors
- Papachristos, E., Skov Johansen, P., Møberg Jacobsen, R., Bjørn Leer Bysted, L., & Skov, M. B.
- Affiliations
- Aalborg University (DK)
- Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University, Denmark
- Venue
- CHI Greece 2021: 1st International Conference of the ACM Greek SIGCHI Chapter
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2021-11-25
- Pages
- 1-6
- OpenAlex
- W3215814249
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 2.13
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Conference of the ACM Greek SIGCHI Chapter (CHIGreece) (publishedVersion)
- VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Human-Automation Interaction and Safety
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Keywords
- human-AI collaboration, AI roles, everyday tasks, waste sorting, recycling, non-expert users, AI decision support, user perceptions of AI, AI-assisted decision-making
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