``Grandpa, Can You Speak Nicer?'': Envisioned Chatbot Roles and Design Tensions in Intergenerational Communication Conflicts

Zhang, T., Poh, E., Hou, Y., Lee, Y., Zhang, R., Li, J., and Tang, A. (2026). ``Grandpa, Can You Speak Nicer?'': Envisioned Chatbot Roles and Design Tensions in Intergenerational Communication Conflicts. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '26).

Abstract

Intergenerational conversations often break down when differences in tone, language, or expectations lead participants to feel dismissed or misunderstood. In this work, we explore how people envision AI-driven chatbot interventions for addressing communication problems in text-based intergenerational family chat. We conducted a scenario-based design interview with 10 pairs of family members from different generations, in which participants designed chatbot interventions that varied in intervention target and timing. Our findings show that participants expect chatbots to perform multiple themes of intervention, including mediating understanding, providing emotional support, offering evaluative commentary, and guiding interaction through behavioral suggestions. These expectations varied systematically across intervention contexts, giving rise to distinct chatbot roles such as neutral mediators, message coaches, repair facilitators, and emotion regulators. Across these roles, participants positioned chatbots as moral advisors that evaluate communicative appropriateness and exercise varying degrees of moral authority. Rather than prescribing specific system behaviors, this work offers a conceptual and exploratory account of AI-mediated intervention in intergenerational communication, and articulates key design tensions that arise when chatbots are imagined as socially and morally involved actors in intimate family interactions.

Materials

BibTeX

@inproceedings{zhang2026grandpa,
  abstract = {Intergenerational conversations often break down when differences in tone, language, or expectations lead participants to feel dismissed or misunderstood. In this work, we explore how people envision AI-driven chatbot interventions for addressing communication problems in text-based intergenerational family chat. We conducted a scenario-based design interview with 10 pairs of family members from different generations, in which participants designed chatbot interventions that varied in intervention target and timing. Our findings show that participants expect chatbots to perform multiple themes of intervention, including mediating understanding, providing emotional support, offering evaluative commentary, and guiding interaction through behavioral suggestions. These expectations varied systematically across intervention contexts, giving rise to distinct chatbot roles such as neutral mediators, message coaches, repair facilitators, and emotion regulators. Across these roles, participants positioned chatbots as moral advisors that evaluate communicative appropriateness and exercise varying degrees of moral authority. Rather than prescribing specific system behaviors, this work offers a conceptual and exploratory account of AI-mediated intervention in intergenerational communication, and articulates key design tensions that arise when chatbots are imagined as socially and morally involved actors in intimate family interactions.},
  note = {In press},
  type = {conference},
  publisher = {ACM},
  year = {2026},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '26)},
  title = {``Grandpa, Can You Speak Nicer?'': Envisioned Chatbot Roles and Design Tensions in Intergenerational Communication Conflicts},
  author = {Zhang, Tianyi and Poh, Emran and Hou, Yueyue and Lee, Yi-Chieh and Zhang, Renwen and Li, Jiannan and Tang, Anthony},
}