This document summarizes a study on how intelligent assistants can help with work tasks. The study involved surveying 401 information workers about the tasks they perform. The tasks were analyzed and categorized into 14 groups. The results showed that many tasks take over two hours and involve cyber, physical, and social activities. Workers desired features for effective task management like reminders and scheduling. The researchers conclude the study provides insight into classifying work tasks and how intelligent assistants can help with tasks like recommendation, tracking, and multi-step tasks.

1. —
Learning About Work
Tasks to Inform Intelligent
Assistant Design
Johanne Trippas, Damiano Spina, Falk Scholer,
Ahmed Hassan Awadallah, Peter Bailey, Paul
Bennett, Ryen White, Jonathan Liono, Yongli
Ren, Flora Salim, Mark Sanderson
Twitter: @JTrippas
http://www.johannetrippas.com

2. Learning About Work Tasks to Inform
Intelligent Assistant Design
•How to support people in work tasks
or workplaces as context?
–In which work tasks can intelligent
assistants help?
–In which work tasks do workers
want help from intelligent
assistants?
2

3. The need for understanding work tasks
•Support of intelligent assistants for work tasks
are
–Restricted to low-level tasks and basic tasks
•Understanding how people complete work tasks
provides insight into how to support work tasks
–Create a work-task classification
–Investigate Cyber-Physical-Social properties
–Provide design recommendations
3

4. How was it done?
•We deployed a Qualtrics survey
–Target “information workers”
•Australia, United Kingdom, and United States
•Were between 25-59 years old
•Were employed or self-employed
•Completed a bachelor’s degree or higher
–401 respondents
–1604 tasks carried out in a work setting
•Analysed these tasks with thematic and
quantitative analysis
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5. Six-steps of thematic analysis
1. Familiarisation of data
2. Generating initial codes
3. Searching for themes
4. Reviewing themes
5. Defining and naming themes
6. Produce report

6. Characterising information workers’ tasks
•14 categories
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–Communication (196)
–Documentation (151)
–Admin and management (143)
–Planning (126)
–Education (79)
–IT (66)
–Finance (64)
–Physical (49)
–Problem solving (45)
–Low-level (32)
–Project (30)
–Customer care (24)
–Meals and breaks (21)
–Travel (9)

7. Survey Results
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8. Where can an intelligent assistant help?
Task categories vs time spent (%)
8
9
22
13
26 23 27
16
20
38
16
57
8 5
11
18
28
22
25 37 29
25 18
31
25
23
33
10
44
25
34
28
26
30
21
30 29
24
28
20
29
24
4448
16
36
22
10
23
30 33
7
31 29
62
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Communication
Documentation
Admin and management
Planning
Education IT
Finance
Physical
Problem
solving
Low-level
Project
Customer care
Meals and breaks
Travel
>day >2h >30min <30min

9. Where can an intelligent assistant help?
Electronic devices usage
•Electronic devices used?
–Yes: 71% (744)
•Personal computer: 93%
–No: 29% (291)
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10. Where can an intelligent assistant help?
Online activities (%)
10
33
11
34
17
44
20
13
64
9 6
33 33
71
56
45
62
50
44
30
44
66
12
33
75 23
37
9
33
22
27
16
39
26
36
21 24
58
19
44
30
20
11
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Communication
Documentation
Admin and management
Planning
Education IT
Finance
Physical
Problem
solving
Low-level
Project
Customer care
Meals and breaks
Travel
0 1 >2

11. Where can an intelligent assistant help?
Physical activities (%)
11
12 12 15 18 19
12
5
69
22
9 10
25
62
56
88 88 85 82 81
88
95
31
78
91 90
75
38
44
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Communication
Documentation
Admin and management
Planning
Education IT
Finance
Physical
Problem
solving
Low-level
Project
Customer care
Meals and breaks
Travel
Yes No

12. Where can an intelligent assistant help?
Social activity (%)
12
47
24 28
48
43
30
19
35
51
19
53
75
48
33
53
76 72
52
57
70
81
65
49
81
47
25
52
67
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Communication
Documentation
Admin and management
Planning
Education IT
Finance
Physical
Problem
solving
Low-level
Project
Customer care
Meals and breaks
Travel
Yes No

13. Where do workers want intelligent assistant help?
13
Wanted tools
1.Task management features
–Reminders, calendars, or task scheduling
2.Ubiquitous access
–Multiple devices and synchronisation
3. Task tracking

14. How can intelligent
assistants help
information workers?
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15. How can intelligent assistants support
information workers?
•Use Cyber-Physical-Social model to:
–Identify tasks
–Track task progression or completion
•Task recommendation and automatic scheduling
•Task resumption
•Multi-step tasks
–Tasks are part of a larger task or goal
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16. Main findings
•Information workers performed a broad range of
tasks
–A substantial number of tasks take more than
two hours
–Cyber: 72%
–Physical: 18%
–Social: 40%
•Information workers desired features for
effective task management
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17. Future task progression studies
•This survey affects the way we can
–Classify work-tasks
–Design intelligent assistants
•This research fits in the broader context of
cyber-physical-social of information workers
–Ongoing data collection
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18. Q&A
Collaborators: Damiano Spina, Falk Scholer,
Ahmed Hassan Awadallah, Peter Bailey, Paul Bennett,
Ryen White, Jonathan Liono, Yongli Ren, Flora Salim,
Mark Sanderson
Funding: This research was partially supported by
Microsoft Research
@JTrippas
http://www.johannetrippas.com
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