Human avatars as co-workers

Human avatars in real work contexts are still rare, which presents several novel research opportunities. Organisations across a wide range of industries are strongly interested in technologies that enable new forms of collaboration. This interest is in part motivated by competitive considerations, such as improving creativity, productivity and division of labour. But the interest in new collaborative technologies is also motivated by environmental concerns, for example the reduction of travelling. However, until now hardly anything is known about how human avatars may enable new forms of collaboration and the effects these new interactions might have on humans and their performance at work.

With our proposed research project, we want to understand the potential opportunities to include avatars in work contexts, such as new forms of collaboration, as well as understand potentially negative consequences for humans and their social interaction. For example, how will individuals and social interactions be influenced by behaviourally indistinguishable virtual
representation of humans, if there is no indication as to whether an avatar is controlled by an agent or a human? What happens if people interacting with a virtual human observe shifts in agency, as another human takes over or steps back from a virtual representation during an interaction? What new forms of division of labour and human-machine interactions can be created by human avatars, and how does this influence human work? To date, these and other questions remain unexplored and their wider ramifications unclear.