Under-Assistance and Unmet Need

Definition

Under-Assistance and Unmet Need examines the mechanisms, conditions and outcomes through which this factor shapes human cognition, learning, collaboration or sustainable performance in AI-supported settings.

Why this matters

Under-Assistance and Unmet Need may materially affect human capability, independence, confidence, safety and productivity. Poorly designed assistance can create hidden costs even where short-term output appears to improve.

Research questions

Which user and task signals reliably indicate that AI support is below the level required for successful completion?

Hypotheses

Unmet need is better predicted by repeated recovery behaviour and stalled progress than by explicit help requests.

Proposed methods

multi-arm assistance-level experiments; longitudinal usage analysis; skill-retention tests; preference elicitation; A/B testing; pre-registered analysis; active comparison; subgroup and accessibility analysis; delayed retention or longitudinal follow-up; adverse-effect capture; reproducibility testing; participant debrief

Stakeholders and beneficiaries

end users; UX researchers; AI developers; product managers; safety teams; employers; regulators; AI safety evaluators; product accessibility leads