In view of the recently launched HISS project coordinated by the Department of Information Systems (Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister), the University of Kassel sent outthe following press releaseon July 31, 2020:

IT-Sup­port of the Zu­future: Humans and Ma­shi­ne er­gän­zen sich

A project at the University of Kassel is developing the IT support of the future. The idea is for humans and artificial intelligence to work hand in hand. In the future, the system will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large companies.

The "HISS" project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), focuses on developing a support system that combines artificial intelligence (AI), for example in the form of chatbots, and human skills. This can mean, for example: When employees ask the company's IT support for help, sometimes a chatbot answers, sometimes a human colleague. The criteria according to which requests from employees are channeled in a company are the subject of the research. At the same time, the scientists want to develop methods and tools that enable employees to make independent decisions about the use of AI. They also aim to develop cutting-edge technologies for the support of the future.

The Department of Information Systems (Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister) at the University of Kassel coordinates the joint project and focuses on the socio-technical design and piloting of the overall system. As a further research partner, the Institute for Social Science Research e.V. (ISF Munich) is part of the HISS project. In addition, the technology startup "smartransfer GmbH", which was funded as part of the "German Accelerator Silicon Valley" program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for start-up companies, the AI technology provider "Cognigy GmbH" and publicplan GmbH, which together represent the three implementation partners of the project. Project partners for the concept development are an SME (Starke + Reichert GmbH & Co. KG), a medium-sized company (Controlware GmbH) and a large corporation (B.Braun Melsungen AG).

"The design of hybrid intelligence in support, as we are tackling in HISS, aims at both higher-quality support and employee empowerment," says Dr. Christoph Peters, operational project manager on the part of the University of Kassel. After all, "AI-based technologies are increasingly finding their way into corporate workflows and are playing a significant role in shaping new forms of digital work," says Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister.

The research project will run for three years and is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a total of more than 1.8 million euros. As a result, HISS is intended to relieve employees in order to create scope for upgrading and reconceptualizing the role of support staff.

Press contact:
University of Kassel
Communications, Press and Public Relations
Phone: +49 561 804-1961
E-mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
www.uni-kassel.de