Alexa, Can You Help Us Solve This Problem?

Abstract

Despite a growing body of research about the design and use of Smart Personal Assistants, existing work has mainly focused on their use as task support for individual users in rather simple problem scenarios. Less is known about their ability to improve collaboration among multiple users in more complex problem settings. In our study, we directly compare 21 groups who either use a Smart Personal Assistant tutor or a human tutor when solving a problem task. The results indicate that groups interacting with Smart Personal Assistant tutors show significantly higher task outcomes and higher degrees of collaboration quality compared to groups interacting with human tutors. The results are used to suggest areas for future research in the field of computer-supported collaboration.