Job sharing between human professionals and chatbots: How should ‘handovers’ happen?

Job sharing between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) systems is likely to become increasingly common in several domains of work. In this paper, we examine mechanisms for managing job sharing for one particular class of AI system: human–machine dialogue systems, or chatbots. This is a useful case to consider, as several mechanisms for managing job sharing are already emerging in these systems, and these mechanisms draw on those that human professionals already use to share work among themselves. A key concept in this domain is that of a ‘handover’, where a client is passed from one worker to another. We identify different types of handover, for human and AI workers, and discuss a range of issues that govern how these should take place for effective job sharing. We identify several questions that arise for engineers designing dialogue systems that support handover functionality, relating to timing and transparency. We conclude by arguing that handovers provide a useful way for structuring discussions of job sharing between humans and AI systems, in dialogue-based domains and perhaps beyond.