Human-AI teaming: leveraging transactive memory and speaking up for enhanced team effectiveness

Nadine Bienefeld; Michaela Kolbe; Giovanni Camen; Dominic Huser; Philipp Karl Buehler

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1208019

Human-AI teaming: leveraging transactive memory and speaking up for enhanced team effectiveness

Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 4:14:1208019. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1208019. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Nadine Bienefeld¹, Michaela Kolbe², Giovanni Camen², Dominic Huser², Philipp Karl Buehler^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Work and Organizational Psychology, Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Institute of Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Cantonal Hospital Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland.

Abstract

In this prospective observational study, we investigate the role of transactive memory and speaking up in human-AI teams comprising 180 intensive care (ICU) physicians and nurses working with AI in a simulated clinical environment. Our findings indicate that interactions with AI agents differ significantly from human interactions, as accessing information from AI agents is positively linked to a team's ability to generate novel hypotheses and demonstrate speaking-up behavior, but only in higher-performing teams. Conversely, accessing information from human team members is negatively associated with these aspects, regardless of team performance. This study is a valuable contribution to the expanding field of research on human-AI teams and team science in general, as it emphasizes the necessity of incorporating AI agents as knowledge sources in a team's transactive memory system, as well as highlighting their role as catalysts for speaking up. Practical implications include suggestions for the design of future AI systems and human-AI team training in healthcare and beyond.

Keywords: behavioral observation; explainable artificial intelligence / XAI; healthcare teams; human-AI teams; interaction analysis; speaking up; team performance; transactive memory systems.