"It makes you think": Provocations Help Restore Critical Thinking to AI-Assisted Knowledge Work

TL;DR

This study investigates how provocations, brief critiques and suggestions, can enhance critical and metacognitive thinking in AI-assisted knowledge work, addressing concerns about AI diminishing critical thinking.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of provocations as a tool to restore critical thinking in AI-assisted tasks and identifies key factors influencing their effectiveness.

Findings

Provocations induce critical and metacognitive thinking.

Five dimensions affect user experience of provocations.

Design implications for critical thinking interventions in AI work.

Abstract

Recent research suggests that the use of Generative AI tools may result in diminished critical thinking during knowledge work. We study the effect on knowledge work of provocations: brief textual prompts that offer critiques for and propose alternatives to AI suggestions. We conduct a between-subjects study (n=24) in which participants completed AI-assisted shortlisting tasks with and without provocations. We find that provocations can induce critical and metacognitive thinking. We derive five dimensions that impact the user experience of provocations: task urgency, task importance, user expertise, provocation actionability, and user responsibility. We connect our findings to related work on design frictions, microboundaries, and distributed cognition. We draw design implications for critical thinking interventions in AI-assisted knowledge work.