HCII2026 Design Café

HCII2026 Design Café on Human-AI Teaming (HAT)

Second edition

The HCII2026 Design Café on Human–AI Teaming (HAT) builds upon and aims to further develop the findings and outcomes of the HCII2025 Design Café (1^st edition). While informed by prior results, the 2026 edition is not constrained by them. Instead, it deliberately opens space for continued critical reflection, creative exploration, and the development of robust, forward-looking solutions to pressing and still unresolved questions.

Indicative examples of HAT-topics are:

• Effectiveness of Human versus AI leadership.
• Impact of human-led versus AI-led leadership on team performance.
• Controlling the level of agents' autonomy in Human-Agent collaboration.  
• Impact of HAT on the quality and speed of solutions for major sustainability challenges.
• Consequences of (De-) Humanization of AI.

These and other challenges will be part of this HCII2026 Design Café on HAT, taking place on Friday, 31 July, 1:30 – 6:00 p.m. 

The results of the HCII2026 Design Café will be published.

It is not a prerequisite for participation to have attended the previous HCII Design Café. Any expert who wishes to actively contribute is welcome to join the HCII2026 Design Café.  

Please note that registration is required, and the number of participants is limited to ensure an engaging and interactive experience.

Register to participate

Context

With the enormously rapid advancements of technology in general and the increasing adoption and utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular, in a wide range of application areas, the nature of human work must be subjected to review and evaluation.

We focus on the following approach:

Humans and AI have each different unique strengths, the impact of which varies in the context of various application domains. In this respect, the development of a “team-concept” is required, based on collaboration models and ways of coupling and synchronizing the strengths of humans with the strengths of AI. The goal is to use the best of both “worlds”, to optimize results and the ways to achieve them efficiently and effectively, keeping in mind that different mindsets and approaches can significantly impact the outcomes Synchronization can focus on various overarching goals, such as cost effectiveness, high-quality results, and/or sustainability, humanity and prosperity.  

Frameworks

The following four frameworks will guide the HAT discussion at the HCII2026 Design Café:

1. Team-configurations of Human-AI Teaming
   1. Human-in-the-loop (and in control) / HITL
   2. Human-on-the-loop (and in decision) / HOTL
   3. Human-out-of-the-loop (only for clearly defined, standardized tasks, though humans can still intervene) / HOOTL

   Employing a team perspective, it seems obvious that joint collaborative work of people and machines (here, AI-based components) could solve complex problems and tasks more effectively.
   Given the complexity of many challenges humankind is confronted with (climate change, starvation, natural resources, pandemics, biodiversity, fake news, etc.), humans need the support of digital technologies, including AI (e.g., pattern recognition, intelligent data processing, smart scientific visualization, machine learning, generative AI). On the other hand, Human Intelligence (HI) is necessary for defining the goals and constraints when tackling these challenges, especially when following an ethics- and value-based approach. Furthermore, HI is needed for providing inspiration and guidance when solving problems that require creativity and visionary thinking.
   The HCII2026 Design Café will explore how the architecture and framework of a HAT-configuration can be developed in a human-centered way (Human-/Humanity-Centered-Design approach) and in accordance with the policies of the EU AI ACT.

2. EU AI Act

   The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) came into force on 1 August 2024. This “European regulation on artificial intelligence (AI)” is “the first comprehensive regulation on AI by a major regulator anywhere.” The Act assigns applications of AI to three risk categories. First, applications and systems that create an unacceptable risk, such as social scoring systems that manipulate behavior or exploit user vulnerabilities, are banned. Second, high-risk applications, such as a Computer Vision scanning tool that ranks job applicants, are subject to specific legal requirements. Lastly, AI applications not explicitly banned or listed as high-risk are largely left unregulated.  It provides the frame and key principles, such as those described in article 1 “Subject Matters” and in article 51, “Classification of General-Purpose AI Models as General-Purpose AI Models with Systemic Risk”.

3. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

   The 17 UN SDGs are the core element of the “ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015”. Its overall goal is to “provide(s) a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”  These goals are based on the recognition that “ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.”

4. The HCI Grand Challenge #3: Ethics, privacy and security

   This topic is addressed in the White Paper Seven HCI Grand Challenges, which arise in the current landscape of rapid technological evolution towards more intelligent interactive technologies and Artificial Intelligence.  (see also “Five-Year Progress Report” on the challenges)
   HCI Grand Challenge # 3 addresses key aspects contained in AI systems as

   • “the prevalence of persuasion techniques to change people’s behavior. While some objectives for the purposes of health (quitting smoking, weight maintenance, nutrition habits, exercise routines, etc.) are usually valuable and desirable, persuasive technologies could, in the wrong circumstances, be used to delude people or to persuade them to engage in undesirable behavior.”
   • the “fundamental ethical concern” when “it comes to AI and autonomous agents” – the “responsibility: where does responsibility lie, what are the moral, societal and legal consequences of actions and decisions made by an AI system, and can an AI system be held accountable for its actions”.
   • Trust and transparency, which are essential as “autonomous intelligent agents will make increasingly complex and important ethical decisions”. Here, “humans will need to know that decisions are trustworthy and ethically justified”. This is a huge challenge, because “trust is hard to come by, and requires initial trust formation and continuous trust development, not only through transparency, but also through usability, collaboration and communication, data security and privacy, as well as goal congruence.”

Organization and moderation

The HCII026 Design Café is conceived, coordinated, and moderated by Christine Riedmann-Streitz (MarkenFactory GmbH and Goethe-University, Germany). It will feature a keynote speech by Norbert Streitz (Smart Future Initiative, Germany). Discussions at the HCII2026 Design Café will be hosted by: Helmut Degen (Siemens Corporation, USA), Pei-Luen Patrick Rau (Tsinghua University, P.R. China), and George Margetis and Stavroula Ntoa (FORTH-ICS, Greece).