A half-day, in-person workshop on June 22, 2026 in Linz, Austria, co-located with CHIWORK’26, the 5th Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work.
As algorithms suggest diagnoses, draft legal arguments, grade assignments, or review code, professions are not only supported, they are reshaped: Skills are redistributed, judgments recalibrated, and responsibility renegotiated. While short-term performance improvements are frequently documented, much less is known about the long-term effects of AI support on human agency and skill development.
AI systems may promote unintended socio-cognitive consequences, including automation bias, overreliance, reduced critical engagement and sense of agency, and gradual deskilling.
When AI becomes a routine collaborator at work, what happens to human expertise and agency? Does cognitive offloading free professionals to focus on higher-level reasoning or does it gradually erode core competencies?
This workshop invites researchers and practitioners to critically examine the sustainability of human expertise in AI-supported work. We welcome perspectives from HCI, AI, cognitive science, philosophy, organizational studies, healthcare, law, education, and other domains where AI is transforming professional practice.
Key Dates
The dates are given in the Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. If the deadline is Day D, the submission period ends at the end of Day D.
- Submission Deadline: May 4, 2026 (AoE)
- Notification: May 18, 2026 (AoE)
- Workshop date: June 22, 2026
Call for Short Papers
Participants are invited to submit a paper up to 4 pages (excluding references). Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Design concepts for mitigating cognitive offloading and supporting cognitive engagement.
- Prototypes and empirical studies that demonstrate novel interaction methods which reduce automation bias or overreliance.
- Evaluation methods and appropriate metrics for measuring agency and skill sustainability in human-AI interacting.
- Governance approaches from an organisational and legal perspective, with regard to requirements and guideleines for implementation and use of AI-systems.
- Theoretical clarifications regarding the redistribution and renegotiation of responsibilities, as well as deskilling, upskilling, and reskilling.
- Provocations or reflections in relation to the workshop topics.
How to Submit
-
Format your submission using the ACM article template in single-column format (\documentclass[manuscript, screen]{acmart}). For details, see: https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions
-
Include your name(s) and affiliation(s) in your paper (single blind review process).
-
Submit the PDF via the following submission form: https://forms.fillout.com/t/8RCxGKcGE7us
After Acceptance
Accepted submissions, as well as collaborative workshop outputs, will be made available on the workshop website and on a dedicated GitHub repository. Proceedings are non-archival.
Please note, it is required to register for the CHIWORK conference (full‑conference registration or one‑day registration) in order to attend the workshop.
Workshop Format
We will share the schedule once it is final. For now, planned activities include:
- Position Paper Presentations
- Participants will deliver short lightning presentations of their accepted position papers. Contributions will be clustered into thematic groups to guide subsequent discussions.
- Interactive Activity
- Participants will collaboratively analyze a shared case of AI-supported work (e.g., AI-assisted professional decision-making).
- Closing
- The workshop will conclude with a plenary discussion aimed at identifying shared research challenges and opportunities for future collaboration.
There is a 25-person limit for in-person attendance.
Aim of the Workshop
By bringing together diverse perspectives, the workshop aims to develop a shared vocabulary and a capability-aware research agenda that foregrounds human agency and skill sustainability in AI design.
- Shared Vocabulary
- Articulate a shared conceptual vocabulary around cognitive offloading, agency, deskilling, and skill sustainability in AI-supported work.
- Design Exploration
- Examine how specific interaction design strategies influence human expertise development, maintenance, and erosion, and how they can preserve or enhance users’ sense of agency in AI-supported work.
- Research Agenda Building
- Identify empirical methods, metrics, and longitudinal study designs capable of assessing both short-term and long-term agency and skills shifts.
Any Questions?
In case you have any questions, please send an email to: agency-and-skill@protonmail.com
Organisers
 |
Caterina Fregosi PhD researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca |
 |
Simon WS Fischer PhD researcher at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour |
 |
Chiara Natali Postdoctoral researcher at VU Amsterdam |
 |
Hanna Schraffenberger Assistant Professor at Radboud University |
 |
Federico Cabitza Associate Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca |