Working With AI: How Team Cohesion Depends on Perceiving the AI as a Tool or a Partner

Authors

  • Maja Hoffmann Orcid
    Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
  • Coraly Wollstein Orcid
    Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
  • Fiona Zimber Orcid
    Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
  • Alina Tausch Orcid
    Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Abstract

With artificial intelligence (AI) getting more integrated into working life, the question is how to use it in a human-centered way to promote resources such as team cohesion, belonging, and support. While these factors are crucial to reaching common targets, not every AI system and application raises the same expectations to provide those resources. This online vignette study aims to answer the question how different role conceptualizations of AI can influence team cohesion in a hybrid team. Two hundred and seventeen (217) participants were randomly divided into two experimental conditions, i.e., to work with AI as a teammate or as a tool. They were then asked to evaluate their team perception while working with the AI, and their trust in the system. While the vignette manipulation of the different AI framings was unsuccessful, further analyses were carried out by separating the participants using their own rating of the AI role. The results show that team cohesion is significantly higher when AI is perceived as a teammate. Moreover, trust in AI has a significant influence on the team perception. Perceiving AI as a teammate leads to higher team cohesion compared to seeing it as a tool, moderated by the participant’s trust in the AI.