Maintaining "Balanced" Conflict: Proactive Intervention Strategies of AI Voice Agents in Online Collaboration of Temporary Design Teams

Temporary teams are important in modern work but often struggle with interpersonal factors that hinder consensus-driven tasks, especially in design teams where effective discussion and execution are critical. Integrating AI into these teams provides a promising solution. While some studies have explored AI’s role in enhancing teamwork, they often ignore the bidirectional impact of team dynamics: teams need to maintain a moderate level of disagreement, which must be effectively managed. To explore the mechanisms regulating conflict escalation and de-escalation in online collaboration of temporary design teams, we conducted exploratory research and an expert workshop (N=6) to propose proactive intervention strategies for AI voice agents. A controlled experiment (N=36) showed that teams with AI voice agent intervention performed better in improving interpersonal relationships, communication-related collaboration quality, and collaboration experience. This work suggests that AI voice agents can support team conflict dynamics by fostering constructive discussions and managing disagreements arising positively.