From Human-Human Collaboration to Human-Agent Collaboration: A Vision, Design Philosophy, and an Empirical Framework for Achieving Successful Partnerships Between Humans and LLM Agents

TL;DR

This paper discusses transitioning from human-human to human-agent collaboration using LLMs, proposing a research agenda grounded in remote collaboration principles to foster effective human-AI partnerships.

Contribution

It introduces a foundational research agenda for human-agent collaboration inspired by remote human collaboration research, emphasizing design principles and interdisciplinary exploration.

Findings

Establishes a research agenda for human-agent collaboration

Highlights the importance of trust and awareness in AI partnerships

Proposes interactive workshop to explore new paradigms

Abstract

The emergence of Large Language Model (LLM) agents enables us to build agent-based intelligent systems that move beyond the role of a "tool" to become genuine collaborators with humans, thereby realizing a novel human-agent collaboration paradigm. Our vision is that LLM agents should resemble remote human collaborators, which allows HCI researchers to ground the future exploration in decades of research on trust, awareness, and common ground in remote human collaboration, while also revealing the unique opportunities and challenges that emerge when one or more partners are AI agents. This workshop establishes a foundational research agenda for the new era by posing the question: How can the rich understanding of remote human collaboration inspire and inform the design and study of human-agent collaboration? We will bring together an interdisciplinary group from HCI, CSCW, and AI to explore this critical transition. The 180-minute workshop will be highly interactive, featuring a keynote speaker, a series of invited lightning talks, and an exploratory group design session where participants will storyboard novel paradigms of human-agent partnership. Our goal is to enlighten the research community by cultivating a shared vocabulary and producing a research agenda that charts the future of collaborative agents.