Conversational agents have been studied as tools to scaffold planning and self-reflection for productivity and well-being. While prior work has demonstrated positive outcomes, we still lack a clear understanding of what drives these results and how users behave and communicate with agents that act as coaches rather than assistants. Such understanding is critical for designing interactions in which agents foster meaningful behavioral change. We conducted a 14-day longitudinal study with 12 participants using a proactive agent that initiated regular check-ins to support daily planning and reflection. Our findings reveal diverse interaction patterns: participants accepted or negotiated suggestions, developed shared mental models, reported progress, and at times resisted or disengaged. We also identified problematic aspects of the agent's behavior, including rigidity, premature turn-taking, and overpromising. Our work contributes to understanding how people interact with a proactive, coach-like agent and offers design considerations for facilitating effective behavioral change.
翻译:会话代理已被研究作为支持生产力和福祉的规划与自我反思工具。尽管先前研究已证明其积极效果,但我们仍不清楚驱动这些结果的具体因素,以及用户如何与扮演教练(而非助手)角色的代理进行行为互动和沟通。这种理解对于设计能够促进有意义行为改变的代理交互至关重要。我们开展了一项为期14天的纵向研究,邀请12名参与者使用主动发起定期检查以支持日常规划与反思的代理。研究发现揭示了多样化的交互模式:参与者接受或协商建议、建立共享心智模型、汇报进展,有时也会抵制或脱离互动。同时,我们识别出代理行为中存在的问题,包括僵化性、过早话轮转换和过度承诺。本研究有助于理解人类如何与主动式教练型代理互动,并为促进有效行为改变提供了设计考量。