Enacting machine agency when AI makes one’s day: understanding how users relate to AI communication technologies for scheduling

Abstract

Abstract AI Communication Technologies (AICTs) make decisions about users’ communication on their behalf. Users’ implementation of AICTs that autonomously act may enable and constrain how they accomplish their work and interact with others. Drawing on interviews with users of two AICTs with differing levels of autonomy designed for work-related scheduling, this study investigated how users enacted AICTs in practice. Users of both tools drew on AICTs’ autonomous capabilities to enact machine agency, a structure that assigns AICTs the power to allocate resources, which helped them increase scheduling efficiency and guide how others interacted with them. Users of the tool that autonomously implemented decisions described a process of enactment in which they used the tool to control their work, perceived the tool was exhibiting too much control, and acted to regain control. I present implications for understanding how people enact machine agency with AICTs that make decisions about their work.