{"id":673278,"date":"2020-07-08T15:15:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T22:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&p=673278"},"modified":"2020-07-30T13:37:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T20:37:27","slug":"lets-work-together-integrating-human-support-with-conversational-agents","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/lets-work-together-integrating-human-support-with-conversational-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Work Together: Integrating Human Support with Conversational Agents"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABSTRACT<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Chatbots have the potential of eliciting users\u2019 deep self-disclosure and mediating human-to-human interaction. However, little is known about how people would interact differently with a human-supported chatbot than when talking to a chatbot alone. We design chatbots with (CH) and without (CO) human support to deliver suggestions for people to practice journaling skills. We conduct a study to investigate the effects of the two chatbot designs and each participant used their chatbot for four weeks. Our results show that the CH participants perceived a higher level of engagement than the CO participants when they received suggestions for practicing journaling skills and also engaged in deeper self-disclosure. However, after finishing the journaling-skill training session, the CO participants were more willing to keep practicing the suggested journaling skills than the CH group. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the challenges of providing healthcare services and social connection. Our in-progress research proposes a human-support chatbot system to explore effective designs to facilitate users\u2019 social connection and well-being and through conversational user interfaces.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/h3>\n

chatbot, self-disclosure, human support, conversational user interfaces<\/p>\n