On the ability of virtual agents to decrease cognitive load: an experimental study

Abstract

When attempting to solve a problem, humans call upon cognitive resources. These resources are limited, and the degree of their utilisation is described as cognitive load. While the number of parameters to be taken into account and to be processed by modern-day knowledge workers increases, their cognitive resources do not. Research shows that too high a load can increase stress and failure rates and decrease the work satisfaction and performance of employees. It is thus in the interest of organisations to reduce the cognitive load of their employees and keep it at a moderate level. One way to achieve this may be the application of virtual assistants (VAs), software programs, that can be addressed via voice or text commands and respond to the users' input. This study uses a laboratory experiment with N = 91 participants comparing two groups in their ability to solve a task. One group was able to make use of a VA while the other could not. Besides task performance, the cognitive load of the participants was measured. Results show that (a) cognitive load is negatively related to task performance, (b) the group using the VA performed better at the task and (c) the group using the VA had a lower cognitive load. These findings show that VAs are a viable way to support employees and can increase their performance. It adds to the growing field of IS research on VAs by expanding the field for the concept of cognitive load.

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Understanding Collaboration with Virtual Assistants – The Role of Social Identity and the Extended Self

“…VAs can increase collaboration within virtual teams (Bittner et al 2019;Seeber et al 2020a). However, when employees use VAs as supportive tools for solving workrelated tasks, it is likely that they interact less with their virtual human team partners.…”

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“…One major factor driving this discussion is the ongoing development of artificial intelligence (AI), which that can be described as "the ability of a machine to perform cognitive functions that we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with the environment, problem solving, decision-making, and even demonstrating creativity" (Rai et al, 2019, p. iii). In digital work, AI is applied for various functions, such as (managerial) decision making (Haesevoets et al, 2021), data analysis and prediction work (Grønsund & Aanestad, 2020;Marabelli et al, 2021), or (human-AI) collaboration (Brachten et al, 2020;Mirbabaie et al, 2020Mirbabaie et al, , 2021. Therefore, AI will change workplaces and professions persistently, potentially threatening the livelihoods of individuals whose jobs are taken over (Aleksander, 2017;Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019).…”