Designing AI Personalities: Enhancing Human-Agent Interaction Through Thoughtful Persona Design
In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence (AI) agents, designing the agent’s characteristics is crucial for shaping user experience. This workshop aims to establish a research community focused on AI agent persona design for various contexts, such as in-car assistants, educational tools, and smart home environments. We will explore critical aspects of persona design, such as voice, embodiment, and demographics, and their impact on user satisfaction and engagement. Through discussions and hands-on activities, we aim to propose practices and standards that enhance the ecological validity of agent personas. Topics include the design of conversational interfaces, the influence of agent personas on user experience, and approaches for creating contextually appropriate AI agents. This workshop will provide a platform for building a community dedicated to developing AI agent personas that better fit diverse, everyday interactions.
Introduction. As artificial intelligence (AI) agents become increasingly integrated into interfaces in a dialogue-based manner via both text and voice, their role in human-computer interaction (HCI) has become more crucial [4]. Virtual agents (VAs) are software programs designed to assist users by completing tasks, answering queries, or providing information [36]. AI agents are a subset of virtual assistants that employ AI techniques to understand, learn from, and adapt to user preferences over time [33]. They can range from simple rule-based systems to complex, learning-based models, de-
Discussion / Conclusion. In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence agents, the design and representation of AI agent personas are cru- cial to shaping user interactions and experiences. Our workshop aims to bring together experts from diverse disciplines to explore and discuss the design of AI agent personas across various contexts, such as in-car assistants, educational support tools, and smart home environments.