Most AI systems today are designed to manage tasks and execute predefined steps. This makes them effective for process coordination but limited in their ability to engage in joint problem-solving with humans or contribute new ideas. We introduce MultiColleagues, a multi-agent conversational system that shows how AI agents can act as colleagues by conversing with each other, sharing new ideas, and actively involving users in collaborative ideation processes. In a within-subjects study with 20 participants, we compared MultiColleagues to a single-agent baseline. Results show that MultiColleagues fostered stronger perceived social presence, and participants rated their outcomes as higher in quality and novelty, with more elaboration during ideation. These findings demonstrate the potential of AI agents to move beyond process partners toward colleagues that share intent, strengthen group dynamics, and collaborate with humans to advance ideas.

翻译：当前大多数AI系统旨在管理任务并执行预定义步骤。这使得它们在流程协调方面表现高效，但在与人类共同解决问题或贡献新想法方面的能力有限。我们提出了MultiColleagues——一个多智能体对话系统，展示了AI智能体如何通过相互对话、分享新想法并积极引导用户参与协作构思过程来扮演同事角色。在一项包含20名参与者的组内研究中，我们将MultiColleagues与单智能体基线系统进行了对比。结果表明，MultiColleagues营造了更强的感知社会临场感，参与者认为其产出成果在质量和新颖性方面更优，且在构思过程中展现出更充分的细节阐述。这些发现证明了AI智能体具有超越流程合作伙伴的潜力，能够成为共享意图、强化群体动态并与人类协作推进想法的真正同事。