AI on My Shoulder: Supporting Emotional Labor in Front-Office Roles with an LLM-based Empathetic Coworker

TL;DR

This paper presents Care-Pilot, an LLM-based empathetic assistant designed to support Client-Service Representatives in managing emotional labor during interactions with uncivil clients, demonstrating promising results in empathy and emotional regulation.

Contribution

Introduces Care-Pilot, an LLM-powered empathetic assistant that effectively supports CSRs' emotional regulation and demonstrates improved empathy perception over human messages.

Findings

Care-Pilot's support messages are perceived as more sincere and actionable.

CSRs report that Care-Pilot helps in emotional regulation and humanizing clients.

Deployment challenges and the importance of shared experiences are highlighted.

Abstract

Client-Service Representatives (CSRs) are vital to organizations. Frequent interactions with disgruntled clients, however, disrupt their mental well-being. To help CSRs regulate their emotions while interacting with uncivil clients, we designed Care-Pilot, an LLM-powered assistant, and evaluated its efficacy, perception, and use. Our comparative analyses between 665 human and Care-Pilot-generated support messages highlight Care-Pilot's ability to adapt to and demonstrate empathy in various incivility incidents. Additionally, 143 CSRs assessed Care-Pilot's empathy as more sincere and actionable than human messages. Finally, we interviewed 20 CSRs who interacted with Care-Pilot in a simulation exercise. They reported that Care-Pilot helped them avoid negative thinking, recenter thoughts, and humanize clients; showing potential for bridging gaps in coworker support. Yet, they also noted deployment challenges and emphasized the indispensability of shared experiences. We discuss future designs and societal implications of AI-mediated emotional labor, underscoring empathy as a critical function for AI assistants for worker mental health.