Astrid Carolus
Papers
2
Total Citations
11
H-Index
2
About
Astrid Carolus is a pioneering researcher in human-technology interaction, specializing in how people mentally represent and anthropomorphize artificial intelligence and voice assistants. Her work bridges cognitive psychology and human-computer interaction, exploring the gap between technology's functional capabilities and the social expectations users project onto it. In her highly cited 2022 study, “Imagine this smart speaker to have a body,” she demonstrated that users consistently attribute human-like characteristics and appearances to voice assistants, shaping their expectations and experiences—a finding with over 6 citations that has influenced design thinking in conversational AI. Her 2023 drawing study, “How do employees imagine AI they want to work with,” further reveals that workers envision collaborative AI with distinctly human traits, challenging purely functional design paradigms. With over 5 citations, this work has become foundational for understanding workplace AI acceptance. Carolus’s innovative use of visual elicitation methods—asking participants to draw their imagined technologies—has set a new standard for studying implicit user expectations. Her research directly informs the ethical and user-centered design of next-generation AI systems, making her a vital voice in shaping how we build technology that people trust and want to engage with.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2How do employees imagine AI they want to work with: A drawing study5 citations · 2023