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Conversational agents have been studied as tools to scaffold planning and self-reflection for productivity and well-being. While prior work has demonstrated positive outcomes, we still lack a clear understanding of what drives these results…
Optimization is as much about modeling the right problem as solving it. Identifying the right objectives, constraints, and trade-offs demands extensive interaction between researchers and stakeholders. Large language models can empower…
One of the long-standing aspirations in conversational AI is to allow them to autonomously take initiatives in conversations, i.e., being proactive. This is especially challenging for multi-party conversations. Prior NLP research focused…
Agents, as user-centric tools, are increasingly deployed for human task delegation, assisting with a broad spectrum of requests by generating thoughts, engaging with user proxies, and producing action plans. However, agents based on large…
The language generation and reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs) have enabled conversational systems with impressive performance in a variety of tasks, from code generation, to composing essays, to passing STEM and legal…
Many AI systems focus solely on providing solutions or explaining outcomes. However, complex tasks like research and strategic thinking often benefit from a more comprehensive approach to augmenting the thinking process rather than…
Online, people often recount their experiences turning to conversational AI agents (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) for mental health support -- going so far as to replace their therapists. These anecdotes suggest that AI agents have great…
Goal-oriented conversational agents are becoming prevalent in our daily lives. For these systems to engage users and achieve their goals, they need to exhibit appropriate social behavior as well as provide informative replies that guide…
Effective workplace communication is essential for managerial success, yet many managers lack access to tailored and sustained training. Although AI-assisted communication systems may offer scalable training solutions, little is known about…
This paper investigates the potential of LLM-based conversational agents (CAs) to enhance critical reflection and mitigate design fixation in group design work. By challenging AI-generated recommendations and prevailing group opinions,…
In this paper we describe the requirements and early system design for a smart conversational agent that can assist older adults in the reminiscence process. The practice of reminiscence has well documented benefits for the mental, social…
Meetings often suffer from a lack of intentionality, such as unclear goals and straying off-topic. Identifying goals and maintaining their clarity throughout a meeting is challenging, as discussions and uncertainties evolve. Yet meeting…
Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) is an emerging technology with a primary goal to assist the knowledge worker by taking care of repetitive, routine and low-cognitive tasks. Conversational agents that can interact with users in a natural…
Young people's mental well-being is a global concern, with peer support playing a key role in daily emotional regulation. Conversational agents are increasingly viewed as promising tools for delivering accessible, personalised peer support,…
People speak aloud to externalize thoughts as one way to help clarify and organize them. Although Speech-to-text can capture these thoughts, transcripts can be difficult to read and make sense due to disfluencies, repetitions and potential…
It is popular lately to train large language models to be used as chat assistants, but in the conversation between the user and the chat assistant, there are prompts, require multi-turns between the chat assistant and the user. However,…
Group decision-making processes frequently suffer when social influence and power dynamics suppress minority viewpoints, leading to compliance and groupthink. Conversational agents can counteract these harmful dynamics by encouraging…
Recent progress on large language models (LLMs) has enabled dialogue agents to generate highly naturalistic and plausible text. However, current LLM language generation focuses on responding accurately to questions and requests with a…
Understanding user intent is essential for effective planning in conversational assistants, particularly those powered by large language models (LLMs) coordinating multiple agents. However, real-world dialogues are often ambiguous,…
Current speech agent interactions are typically user-initiated, limiting the interactions they can deliver. Future functionality will require agents to be proactive, sometimes interrupting users. Little is known about how these spoken…