Frontstage Mediation Work: Invisible Work Bridging Gaps Between AI Decisions and User Expectations

2026-10-06

AI Summary

This study addresses the service friction arising from misalignments between automated decision-making and user expectations in AI services, highlighting how the invisible mediating labor of frontline employees remains systematically undocumented. Grounded in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) frameworks and employing a qualitative case study methodology, this work introduces the novel analytical lens of “frontline mediation work” to reveal the mechanisms through which automated systems offload interactional responsibilities onto human workers. The research identifies four distinct practice patterns employed to mitigate service friction and demonstrates that such mediating labor remains invisible within existing performance metrics and system logs. Ultimately, this study offers a new paradigm for understanding responsibility shifting in human-AI collaboration and provides empirical evidence to inform the optimization of AI service system design.

Abstract

Automated service systems increasingly generate algorithmic operational decisions that shape how services are delivered. However, these decisions reach end-users only through frontline workers who carry them out in real-world settings. During this process, automated decisions can diverge from user expectations, surfacing as friction at the service encounter. We propose Frontstage Mediation Work as a preliminary analytic lens for examining the often invisible labor through which frontline workers anticipate and manage such misalignments between algorithmic decisions and user expectations. Drawing on a qualitative case study of an On-Demand Ride-Pooling service, we identify four recurring practices through which drivers sustain the service encounter when frictions arise. Such labor remains absorbed into routine operations, leaving no trace in performance metrics, system logs, or formal job descriptions. This paper contributes to worker-centered HCI scholarship by illustrating how automated services shift onto frontline workers the responsibility of managing the interactional consequences of system-level decisions.

Problem

• Algorithmic decision-making
• Frontline workers
• Invisible labor
• User expectations
• Human-Computer Interaction

Innovation

• Frontstage Mediation Work
• Algorithmic Decision-Making
• Worker-Centered HCI
• Invisible Labor
• Automated Service Systems