Intentional Meetings is a workstream in the Tools For Thought project at Microsoft Research Cambridge UK. We aim to understand how to help organizations develop a goal-oriented meeting lifecycle that leverages Generative AI to construct dynamic goal-driven interfaces that adapt to organizational and team tasks and contexts.
![The CoExplorer operation flowchart](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prodnew/2024/05/coexplorer-2d.png)
![Hybridge system hero image](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prodnew/2024/03/HeroImage_LBW.png)
![VROOM system model](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2020/05/vroom-system.png)
![3D video generated from webcams, in a meeting](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prodnew/2024/03/P3D.png)
![A hybrid meeting in which everyone sits around a virtual table](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2022/05/perspectives2.jpg)
![Realistic and cartoon avatars in mixed reality meetings](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2022/03/banner_v3.png)
We explore meeting intentionality through behavioral research
This journey involves delving into the intricacies of the purpose of workflows. We currently focus on meeting scenarios as our area of expertise, but we expect this to widen out to wider asynchronous and synchronous collaboration scenarios. Using survey data, telemetry, interviews, and interventions, we are unveiling fundamental principles that can steer the development of prototypes and product features. Here are some areas that we have explored or are currently exploring:
- Behaviors with respect to meeting affordances
- Meeting chat. Virtual Voices: Exploring Individual Differences in Written and Verbal Participation in Meetings ๐
- Spatial audio: Hear We Are: Spatial Audio Benefits Perceptions of Turn-Taking and Social Presence in Video Meetings
- Avatars in augmented reality meetings: Nice is Different than Good: Longitudinal Communicative Effects of Realistic and Cartoon Avatars in Real Mixed Reality Work Meetings
- Avatars and facial noise evaluation: Ecological Validity and the Evaluation of Avatar Facial Animation Noise
- Fundamental meeting behaviors
- Meeting Goals: Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technology ๐
- Multitasking in meetings: Large Scale Analysis of Multitasking Behavior During Remote Meetings
- Attention in meetings. Classification of Functional Attention in Video Meetings | Low Engagement As a Deliberate Practice of Remote Participants in Video Meetings
- Meetings during COVID-19. Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality in Enterprise Video Meetings During COVID-19 | Collaboration and Meetings – Chapter 1 of the 2021 New Future of Work report | Bridging social distance during social distancing: Exploring social talk and remote collegiality in video conferencing
- Hybrid meetings: (Re)Configuring Hybrid Meetings: Moving from User-Centered Design to Meeting-Centered Design | Hybrid Meetings in the Modern Workplace: Stories of Success and Failure
- Speech overlap in meetings: Automated mapping of competitive and collaborative overlapping talk in video meetings
- Related work on the effects on Generative AI on knowledge work and education (not directly covering just meetings)
- Generative AI and Metacognition: The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI ๐
- Generative AI and the Automation of Knowledge Work: Ironies of Generative AI: Understanding and mitigating productivity loss in human-AI interactions ๐
- Generative AI workflows and research methods: “It’s like a rubber duck that talks back”: Understanding Generative AI-Assisted Data Analysis Workflows through a Participatory Prompting Study ๐
- Generative AI in Education: We contributed slide 9 to AI in Education: A Microsoft Special Report (opens in new tab) (Full site: Reimagine Education 2024: Prepare for the future with new AI and security offers | Microsoft EDU (opens in new tab))
We explore meeting interaction paradigms through prototype-based research
Our prototyping process is an exploration of principles that connect people in ways that align with their goals, team context, and endpoint technology. We are on a mission to develop solutions that share common principles, infrastructure, and features across various modes of encounters. These solutions are not a one-size-fits-all but are executed in unique combinations tailored to specific needs.
- Generative AI meeting prototype: The CoExplorer Technology Probe: A Generative AI-Powered Adaptive Interface to Support Intentionality in Planning and Running Video Meetings ๐
- Asymmetrical hybrid meeting prototype: Comparing the Agency of Hybrid Meeting Remote Users in 2D and 3D Interfaces of the Hybridge System ๐
- 3D video of people in a 3D virtual room prototype: An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations ๐
- Symmetrical meeting prototype that enables all users to see everyone around the table with video but in a virtual room from your natural first person view: Perspectives: Creating Inclusive and Equitable Hybrid Meeting Experiences
- Semantic Devices: Beyond Audio: Towards a Design Space of Headphones as a Site for Interaction and Sensing
- Meeting Conversational Transitions prototype: Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings
- Post-meeting dashboard prototype for effective and inclusive meetings. MeetingCoach: An Intelligent Dashboard for Supporting Effective and Inclusive Meetings
- VROOM prototype: Belonging There: VROOM-ing into the Uncanny Valley of XR Telepresence
- Robotic Telepresence: โThere is a bit of grace missingโ: Understanding non-use of mobile robotic telepresence in a global technology company | โI canโt get roundโ: Recruiting Assistance in Mobile Robotic Telepresence