AI-Powered Reminders for Collaborative Tasks: Experiences and Futures

TL;DR

The paper investigates AI-powered reminders embedded in Microsoft's Viva Daily Briefing Email and their role in supporting asynchronous collaboration. Employing a mixed-methods design with semi-structured interviews (n=11) and validating surveys (n=45), it analyzes how knowledge workers incorporate reminders, what information they want surfaced, and how workstyles influence perceived value and interaction. The study finds that reminders that surface forgotten tasks are valued, while accuracy and redundancy diminish value; it identifies memory-augmentation mechanisms and categorizes forgotten-task types. Regression analyses link positive interaction with higher perceived value, and interviews reveal a desire for richer interactions (e.g., inline replies, calendar scheduling) beyond current button-based actions. These insights inform design guidelines for personalized, multi-channel AI reminders that better support asynchronous collaboration and task management in modern workplaces.

Abstract

Email continues to serve as a central medium for managing collaborations. While unstructured email messaging is lightweight and conducive to coordination, it is easy to overlook commitments and requests for collaborations that are embedded in the text of free-flowing communications. Twenty-one years ago, Bellotti et al. proposed TaskMaster with the goal of redesigning the email interface to have explicit task management capabilities. Recently, AI-based task recognition and reminder services have been introduced in major email systems as one approach to managing asynchronous collaborations. While these services have been provided to millions of people around the world, there is little understanding of how people interact with and benefit from them. We explore knowledge workers' experiences with Microsoft's Viva Daily Briefing Email to better understand how AI-powered reminders can support asynchronous collaborations. Through semi-structured interviews and surveys, we shed light on how AI-powered reminders are incorporated into workflows to support asynchronous collaborations. We identify what knowledge workers prefer AI-powered reminders to remind them about and how they would like to interact with these reminders. Using mixed methods and a self-assessment methodology, we investigate the relationship between information workers' work styles and the perceived value of the Viva Daily Briefing Email to identify users who are more likely to benefit from AI-powered reminders for asynchronous collaborations. We conclude by discussing the experiences and futures of AI-powered reminders for collaborative tasks and asynchronous collaborations.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Summary of the methods and analyses for each research question. We answer the first two research questions by conducting two thematic analyses based on open-ended responses from the pre-interview and validating interview surveys. We create two linear regression models based on the validating interview survey questions to answer the third research question. We qualitatively analyze the retrospective portion of the semi-structured interviews to answer research question four. All studies were approved by an ethics and privacy review board (IRB).
• Figure 2: Example of a Viva Daily Briefing Email (2020 --- 2023) (left) and Gmail Reminders (right)