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How will generative AI change teachers’ everyday work? What new opportunities, challenges and ethical dilemmas might emerge? And how can we ensure that AI supports teachers rather than adding to their workload?

On 30 November 2026, the LärA AI Research School will bring together international researchers and experts for a symposium at Uppsala University to discuss these questions.

LärA AI is a national research school focusing on teachers’ work environment and wellbeing in the age of generative AI. Funded by the Swedish Research Council, the research school brings together Uppsala University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the University of Gävle. With funding of SEK 42 million, the initiative supports doctoral research exploring how generative AI influences teachers’ professional roles, working conditions and everyday practices.

The research school is led by Mats Daniels and Åsa Cajander at Uppsala University and combines perspectives from human-computer interaction, education and work environment research. An important ambition is to develop knowledge that can help schools introduce and use AI in ways that support both teachers and education.

The symposium is part of this effort and offers an opportunity to bring different research perspectives together.

An international programme with a focus on teachers

The morning begins with Tony Clear from Auckland University of Technology discussing changing teacher roles and ethical dilemmas associated with agentic AI. Torkil Clemmensen from Copenhagen Business School will explore digital legacy, organisational memory and the experiences of older teachers. Eva Lundqvist from Uppsala University will share experiences of collaboration between teachers and researchers, while Netta Iivari from the University of Oulu will discuss participatory design and teachers’ opportunities to shape their future work practices.

In the afternoon, Michalis Giannakos from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology will examine human learning and interaction with AI. Mark Guzdial from the University of Michigan will discuss pressures on teachers in classrooms, while Carsten Schulte from Paderborn University will address generative AI in education from the perspective of explainable AI.

Two panel discussions will bring together the speakers with additional perspectives from Mihaela Sabin at the University of New Hampshire, Marcus Koskinen-Hagman from Ålands lyceum and Bengt Sandblad from Uppsala University.

The day concludes with an open discussion about possible ways forward for research on teachers’ work environment in the age of AI.

We look forward to a day of interesting presentations and discussions, and to exploring how research can contribute to a sustainable working environment for teachers as AI becomes an increasingly common part of education.

The symposium takes place on 30 November 2026 at Uppsala University, room Å90102, from 09.00 to 16.45.

Register here

You can find the program here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sARe57iTdD37LSxdHd4aEI92-fZO5BnAJ3kx2_eKitI/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.kt85udw4jmdr

What do you get when you bring together a group of researchers interested in service design, digitalisation and work environments? Apparently, two very productive days in Linköping. With surprisingly glorious weather as a bonus! ☀️

We have just had our first kick-off meeting for our new research project, “Tjänsteprototypande som metod för att forma digital arbetsmiljö” (Service Prototyping as a Method for Shaping Digital Work Environments).

The project addresses a familiar problem: new digital systems in healthcare are often introduced with promises of making work easier and more efficient. But sometimes the reality is rather different. More stress, new tasks, unclear responsibilities and workflows that nobody quite anticipated.

What if we could explore these consequences before introducing the technology, rather than discovering them afterwards?

That is exactly what we want to investigate!

Over the next two years, we will develop and evaluate a method using service prototypes to help healthcare organisations anticipate how new digital technologies might affect employees’ work environments, and explore how implementation processes can be adapted to prevent problems before they arise. Think of it as a rehearsal for digitalisation, where we can identify potential challenges and make adjustments before the technology is introduced.

Our research team brings together Johan Blomkvist, Fredrik Bodell, Marcus Persson and Åsa Cajander, combining expertise in service design, human-computer interaction and digital work environments.

During our two days in Linköping, we got started on planning the research, discussing methods and figuring out how to turn our ideas into something useful in practice. There were plenty of interesting discussions, new ideas and probably enough research questions to keep us busy well beyond the project’s two years.

A great start, a lovely team and sunshine in Linköping. What more could you ask for from a research kick-off?

Now the real work begins! 🚀

Human-drone interaction is an emerging field investigating ways to extend the conventionally passive role of drones with autonomous, socially interactive functionalities. Drones offer unique opportunities for applications, such as exercise support, due to their mobility and flexibility. While previous research has studied drones for, e.g., pacing, gait analysis, and accessibility in running contexts, we propose that an equally crucial part of such applications is the socially interactive role of the drone.

Our paper “Investigating social drones for recreational running through co-design” was recently published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI. In this paper, Stine Schmieg Johansen, Martin Bergström, Mohammad Obaid, and I, present a study in two phases. In the first phase, we conducted a preliminary study that informed the design of a co-design workshop through eight semi-structured interviews exploring drone support for runners. In the second phase, we designed and conducted a co-design workshop with five experienced recreational runners to reflect on the practical and ethical challenges of using drones and to envision ways in which drones could support and interact with runners in future scenarios. The results present five low-fidelity social drone prototypes (seen above), including participants’ reflections tied to each prototype. Furthermore, we present analytical themes that demonstrate the necessity of extending and re-framing approaches to designing social drones.

The results expanded the Design Space for Social Drones framework, previously developed by Bayatas et al. (2019). Bold = Extensions derived from the thematic analysis. Bottom of the two sections are non-user concerns.

Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2026.1897014

Citation: Thunberg S, Schmieg Johansen S, Bergström M and Obaid M (2026) Investigating social drones for recreational running through co-design. Front. Robot. AI 13:1897014. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2026.1897014

This week, members of the HTO research group are taking part in NordiCHI 2026 in Vaasa, Finland. NordiCHI is one of the main Nordic conferences for Human Computer Interaction and brings together researchers working with the relationships between people, technology, organizations and society.

For us, there is also a nice sense of continuity. The previous NordiCHI conference was held in Uppsala in 2024. This time, we have travelled to Vaasa as participants, contributing to several different parts of the programme.

Åsa Cajander and Viktoria Rubin are among the organisers of the workshop Empowering Users in Public Procurement: User Involvement, Work Environment, and AI in Practice, together with Marta Larusdottir, Johanna Viitanen, Torkil Clemmensen, Lilja Jóhannsdóttir Petersen, Maral Babapour Chafi and Laura Moll Meldgård.

The workshop connects closely to our research in AI PROCARE, a Nordic research project studying the procurement of AI systems in healthcare. The project asks how decisions made during procurement influence healthcare professionals’ future work environment. AI may change clinical decisions, administrative work, professional autonomy and the distribution of responsibility. This means that usability, user involvement and work environment issues need to be considered before a new system reaches the workplace, not only after implementation.

Jonathan Källbäcker is presenting the paper The Association Between User Involvement and Workload in Technology Use: A Survey of Technology Implementation Across Ground Staff and Managers at Swedish Airports. The study builds on our research on digitalisation and automation in airport ground operations. In the TARA project, we have studied how new technologies affect the everyday work of ground staff, including questions of workload, control, communication and opportunities to influence the technologies they use.

HTO is also contributing to other parts of the conference programme. Åsa Cajander is chairing the research paper session Taking Care of Ethics and participating in the panel Is AI Making Researchers’ Work More Meaningful?. The panel raises a question that is becoming increasingly relevant as generative AI becomes part of everyday academic work. AI can help with many research tasks, but efficiency is not necessarily the same thing as meaningfulness. What happens to the parts of research that we care about, such as relationships with colleagues and students, intellectual curiosity, creativity, and the careful work of producing high-quality research?

Taken together we have had a great conference!

This autumn, three new PhD students joined our research group as part of the launch of LärA-AI, a new research school exploring how generative artificial intelligence is affecting teachers’ work environment and professional role. Cora Ljunggren Axelsson is the last of them to be introduced here.

Welcome to the HTO group, Cora! Can you briefly introduce yourself and your background? 
I am interested in understanding human needs and how people’s identities and ways of acting are shaped by changing conditions. With a background in Human-Computer Interaction, Behavioural Science and some experience at the Teacher Education Programme, I am particularly interested in keeping people in focus and understanding what shapes their judgements and decisions.

What made you apply to the graduate school?
Doing a PhD has been a dream of mine for a long time, and I have always been drawn to the opportunity to tackle scientific problems and work with others to turn fragmented information into a coherent whole. The theme of the graduate school brings together several of my academic interests, and I found the focus on teachers’ experiences especially important. Teachers are the ones navigating these changes in their everyday work.

The social aspect of the graduate school was also an important factor in my decision to apply, as I value the opportunity to discuss and share ideas with people approaching similar questions from different backgrounds. I look forward to learning from each other and seeing how our different perspectives can complement each other.

What is your focus at the graduate school?
My research focuses on how teachers experience their autonomy and professional judgement in the context of GenAI, and how gendered norms and expectations may influence these experiences. More broadly, I am interested in the human side of decision-making, how people make sense of changing conditions and what creates motivation to act. GenAI is changing the conditions of teaching practice, but people ultimately shape what these changes mean in practice.

What do you hope your research will contribute to?
I hope my research will contribute to a better understanding of teachers’ situations and the challenges they face when navigating GenAI in education. GenAI is introducing new demands into teaching practices, while the direction of future developments remains uncertain. At the same time, research on AI is expanding and new policies and guidelines are continuosly being introduced, creating further changes that teachers need to navigate.

When you’re not working, what do you like to do in your free time?
I sing in a choir, which I enjoy both for the social aspect and the feeling of being part of a community creating something together. To stimulate my brain even more (as if reading for a PhD were not enough), I also enjoy reading fiction with my book club. As a contrast to the intellectual side of work, I find being physically active a good way to switch off, especially when so much of the work happens in your head. You can therefore find me running and skiing, both downhill and cross-country.

In healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI) may save clinicians time, automate routine activities, and support better decisions, but empathy, reassurance, trust, conversation, and human connection remain essential parts of care.
This is where digital humanism matters! Digital humanism argues that technology should be deliberately shaped around human values, rights, needs, and societal goals.

Shweta and I had the chance to explore this topic with other researchers in a research commentary on digital humanism in requirements engineering (RE) for healthcare solutions in the age of AI¹. In the paper, we argue that RE can provide an important bridge between broad principles such as fairness, autonomy, privacy, explainability, and human oversight and the concrete requirements used to design healthcare systems. We also warn that RE itself can unintentionally contribute to harm when requirements reflect only the perspectives of easily accessible stakeholders while excluding patients, caregivers, marginalised communities, or other affected groups.

This perspective connects naturally with human-computer interaction (HCI). From an HCI perspective, human values must also be reflected in interaction. Human oversight is meaningful only if clinicians can understand, question, or override AI recommendations. Explainability matters only if explanations are understandable and useful. Patient autonomy depends on interfaces that support meaningful choice and accommodate different abilities, cultures, levels of digital literacy, and contexts of use.

RE can make human values explicit as requirements, while HCI can examine how those values are experienced and supported through interaction.

In the paper, we identified directions for future RE research, including: (i) examining the potential “dark side” of RE and how RE practices themselves may unintentionally reinforce exclusion or harm; (ii) educating future RE researchers and practitioners in digital humanism; (iii) empowering individuals and communities, and fostering social justice and trust; (iv) broadening interdisciplinarity throughout the RE process; and (v) bridging the RE-AI collaboration gap when building systems. These directions are equally relevant to HCI.

RE and HCI can help ensure that progress in AI-enabled healthcare serves people, rather than requiring people to adapt to technology.

¹Ouhbi, S., Levy, M., Mondragon Campos, O.A., Lessard, L., Taveter, K., Fiorini, L., Premanandan, S., Fricker, S.A. and Amyot, D., 2026. Digital humanism in requirements engineering for healthcare solutions in the age of AI. Requirements Engineering, 31(2), p.11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-026-00466-9

We are continuing to introduce our new PhD students who have joined us this autumn, as part of the launch of LärA-AI, a new research school exploring how generative artificial intelligence is affecting teachers’ work environment and professional role.

Welcome to the HTO group, Hannah! Can you briefly introduce yourself and your background?

Before starting this PhD, I studied Cognitive Science at the University of Tübingen, and continued with a master’s in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Uppsala University. In both fields, I am especially interested in understanding us humans – how we and our cognition function, how we interact with each other and with technology, and how we can shape technology in a way that supports our wellbeing. Besides studying, I was very involved in our master program’s student association CHIA (Computer-Human Interaction Association) because it is very close to my heart to support students during and outside of their studies and create a safe space where they can connect with each other, get inspired, and feel prepared for what comes after their graduation.

What made you apply to the graduate school?

I wanted to pursue a PhD because I am by nature a very curious person who loves to learn new things and wants to understand the reasons behind phenomena and behaviors. What I like about research is the mixture between creativity, analytics and social interactions and it feels meaningful to be able to contribute to a bigger understanding (and shaping) of our world. This particular graduate school caught my interest because it combines different fields that I am interested in (e.g. HCI, education, work environment). Additionally, I think it is a great setting to work together with other PhD students looking at the same topic from different perspectives.

What is your focus at the graduate school?

My focus lays on how AI affects the work environment and wellbeing of teachers in their daily practice: How and why do they use certain AI tools for e.g. planning of lessons and assessment of students? Where can AI be a relief, but how might it add additional stress factors? Since I am intrigued by human cognition, I would also love to look at how teachers’ cognitive functions might be affected or changing.

What do you hope your research will contribute to?

I would love for my research to produce knowledge that can be practically translated into everyday life – nothing too theoretical but something that positively contributes to teachers’ wellbeing directly. I want to help teachers understand their situation better and to equip them with new perspectives, practical tips and the feeling of not being left alone in this process of adapting to new technology.

When you’re not working, what do you like to do in your free time?

I really enjoy being outdoors and active. I love going for walks/hikes, exploring new surroundings, going swimming, or dancing Lindy Hop. I enjoy trying out new things, love languages, singing in a choir, and crafting.

Det nordiska forskningsprojektet AI-PROCARE är igång och det är dags för en kort rapport om läget.

Bakgrunden till projektet handlar om AI:s intåg i hälso- och sjukvården, vilket påverkar kliniska beslut, administrativa arbetsuppgifter och hur arbetet organiseras. AI lyfts ofta fram som ett sätt att effektivisera arbetet och minska manuella arbetsuppgifter, men samtidigt vet vi att det också kan skapa nya former av stress och minska medarbetares handlingsutrymme. Därför får själva upphandlingen av tekniken stor betydelse för vilka konsekvenser den får i det dagliga arbetet. Det utgör en särskild utmaning för den offentligt finansierade sjukvården, då offentlig upphandling är en hårt reglerad procedur med långa ledtider, vilket kan vara svårt att hantera när ny och snabbt framväxande teknik ska köpas in.

Därför syftar projektet till att belysa hur arbetsmiljöfrågor kan få en tydligare plats när IT-system med AI-teknik upphandlas. Vi är ett stort, nordiskt forskarteam från Island, Danmark, Finland och Sverige som genomför datainsamling parallellt i de fyra länderna, med målet att identifiera både gemensamma nämnare och landsunika förutsättningar.

I det första steget undersöker vi hur arbetsmiljöfrågor hanteras i upphandlingsprocessen genom att undersöka attityder, kunskaper och rutiner hos dem som på olika sätt deltar i sådana upphandlingar; upphandlare, vårdpersonal, IT-specialister och chefer. Här har vi tittat på en rad olika system där det finns skilda utmaningar i att ta hänsyn till medarbetarnas arbetsmiljö.  Ett exempel är digital trygghetsteknik på äldreboenden (kameror som larmar), som bland annat syftar till att minska fall och skapa en lugnare miljö för både de äldre och personalen. Ett annat exempel är AI-stödd journalföring; en teknik som automatiskt fångar och sammanfattar samtal mellan patient och vårdpersonal till ett utkast i patientens journal. Vi har även intresserat oss för en form av beslutsstöd som assisterar läkare att bedöma röntgenbilder vid misstänkt stroke.

Just nu är vi i slutfasen av den första datainsamlingen, men det finns fortfarande utrymme för fler intervjuer, så om du känner till någon avslutad upphandling som kan vara relevant tar vi gärna emot tips.

I nästa steg ska vi göra fokuserade casestudier på ett fåtal utvalda upphandlingar, där vi ska analysera framgångsfaktorer för hur man kan inkludera arbetsmiljöfrågor i upphandlingen. Avslutningsvis kommer vi använda den nyvunna kunskapen till att fram och utvärdera praktiska riktlinjer för en ansvarsfull upphandling av AI-system.

Det är roligt att många är intresserade av vad vi gör, vi återkommer med en ny rapport längre fram!

Involverade forskare i svenska delen av projektet är Åsa Cajander, Maral Babapour Chafi och Viktoria Rubin