Designing Conversational AI Systems

This project examines how the designers of artificial intelligence (AI) tools influence user interactions. A key focus is on the work of conversation designers and user experience (UX) professionals who write AI dialogue and determine how AI systems respond. The project includes fieldwork among these researchers and designers to understand how their choices affect interactions between AI and users. Project findings are adapted into new educational resources to improve digital interactions. The project involves a mixed-methods ethnographic study that uses participant observation and interviews with conversational user experience professionals across multiple field sites. The study population represents various company sizes and approaches to AI development. By employing the embedded laboratory observation methods pioneered by anthropology and science and technology studies (STS), the project asks: how professionals define usability for conversational systems without visual interfaces; how cultural contexts influence AI conversation design practices; and how expertise in conversational user experience evolves as the field develops. The project team intends to examine the sociocultural practices that shape human-AI interaction design. The project contributes to user experience education along with translational work in the development of pedagogical resources and industry partnerships that prepare students for careers designing AI systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.