The pursuit of happiness: the power and influence of AI teammate emotion in human-AI teamwork

As the world evolves, human-AI teams (HAT) have become increasingly more capable in their ability to complete task objectives. Due to this rising importance, it has become essential to understand the interpersonal dynamism between humans and AI to further optimise their performance potential. Given the demonstrated utility of emotional communication within human-human team structures, this research investigates the nature of AI-sourced positive emotions on human teammates. Through 47 interviews, our findings show that for these AI teammates to be accepted, human teammates have preferences on understanding the emotional utility prior to its presentation, as well as which emotions are situationally acceptable. Also, findings show that integrating emotions within AI teammates has a positive influence on human perceptions and behaviour in a task. In further detail, emotions act as status updates that allow human teammates to not only better understand their teammates' mental states but also understand how their AI teammates perceive the situation around them. Together, this gives insight into how AI emotional expressions influence the perception of social support on the wider Human-AI team. Mainly how emotions can be used to increase acceptance of AI teammates and improve the overall experience human teammates have within the task.