Empirically Understanding the Potential Impacts and Process of Social Influence in Human-AI Teams

In the coming years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be applied as a teammate that works alongside and collaborates with humans. Prior research in teaming and CSCW has shown that teammates have the ability to change the thoughts and behaviors of each other through simple interactions in a process known as social influence. However, to date, research has yet to identify the social influence that AI teammates could have in these human-AI teams, which has led to a limited understanding of how AI teammates will change the behaviors of their human teammates. To remedy this gap, we conduct a mixed-methods study (N=33) with young individuals to explore how humans could behaviorally adapt and perceive their behavioral adaptation due to interaction with an AI teammate. Qualitative results report that perceived three unique stages they had to experience for the social influence of their AI teammate to lead to adaptation (i.e., perceiving a sense of control, identifying a technological or performative justification, and gaining first-hand experience). Quantitative results validate and illustrate the results of this perceived process, as results show that participants adapted their behaviors to complement the behaviors of different types of AI teammates. This study contributes to the CSCW/HCI field by developing an initial understanding of AI teammates' social influence in human-AI teams, which will be a pivotal design and research consideration in future efforts.