As GenAI models are adopted to support software engineers and their development teams, understanding effective human-AI collaboration (HAIC) is increasingly important. Socio-emotional intelligence (SEI) enhances collaboration among human teammates, but its role in HAIC remains unclear. Current AI systems lack SEI capabilities that humans bring to teamwork, creating a potential gap in collaborative dynamics. In this study, we investigate how software practitioners perceive the socio-emotional gap in HAIC and what capabilities AI systems require for effective collaboration. Through semi-structured interviews with 10 practitioners, we examine how they think about collaborating with human versus AI teammates, focusing on their SEI expectations and the AI capabilities they envision. Results indicate that practitioners currently view AI models as intellectual teammates rather than social partners and expect fewer SEI attributes from them than from human teammates. However, they see the socio-emotional gap not as AIs failure to exhibit SEI traits, but as a functional gap in collaborative capabilities (AIs inability to negotiate responsibilities, adapt contextually, or maintain sustained partnerships). We introduce the concept of functional equivalents: technical capabilities (internal cognition, contextual intelligence, adaptive learning, and collaborative intelligence) that achieve collaborative outcomes comparable to human SEI attributes. Our findings suggest that effective collaboration with AI for SE tasks may benefit from functional design rather than replicating human SEI traits for SE tasks, thereby redefining collaboration as functional alignment.

翻译：随着生成式人工智能模型被采用以支持软件工程师及其开发团队，理解有效的人机协作变得日益重要。社会情感智能能够增强人类团队成员之间的协作，但其在人机协作中的作用尚不明确。当前的人工智能系统缺乏人类为团队合作带来的社会情感智能能力，这在协作动态中造成了潜在的鸿沟。在本研究中，我们探讨了软件从业者如何看待人机协作中的社会情感鸿沟，以及人工智能系统需要具备哪些能力以实现有效协作。通过对10名从业者进行半结构化访谈，我们考察了他们如何看待与人类队友和人工智能队友的协作，重点关注他们对社会情感智能的期望以及他们设想的人工智能能力。结果表明，从业者目前将人工智能模型视为智力型队友而非社交伙伴，对其社会情感智能属性的期望低于对人类队友的期望。然而，他们认为社会情感鸿沟并非源于人工智能无法展现社会情感特质，而是协作能力上的功能鸿沟（人工智能无法协商责任、根据情境适应或维持持续合作关系）。我们引入了功能等价物的概念：即能够实现与人类社会情感智能属性相当之协作成果的技术能力（内部认知、情境智能、适应性学习和协作智能）。我们的研究结果表明，针对软件工程任务与人工智能的有效协作可能受益于功能性设计而非复制人类的社会情感智能特质，从而将协作重新定义为功能对齐。