Publication details
“It’s a Swiss Army knife”: A social-constructivist account of generative chatbots use
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| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, text-based generative LLM chatbots have become a part of people’s everyday lives. However, the interactions of ordinary users with chatbots have received little attention in contemporary research, as the focus is primarily directed at specific user groups, such as students or customers. Furthermore, the vast majority of the scarce research on ordinary users employs psychological frameworks, whereas the social-constructivist perspective is largely absent. The resulting categorizations of chatbot usage and motivations for use lack the context of users’ lived experiences, which is critical for a comprehensive understanding of chatbots’ relevance for them. By employing the concept of use genres, which considers the act of technology use as a situated, typified, and meaningful action, this article provides a rich and detailed account of chatbot usage embedded in the everyday lives of ordinary users (N = 18) in the Czech Republic. The research conducted in 2025 utilized semi-structured interviews to collect data, which were subsequently analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The results indicate that several factors—including the nature of users’ occupations, the (non)existence of routine and overall stability in their lives, the people around them, societal narratives about artificial intelligence, and user-technology relations—influence the actual usage of chatbots. Furthermore, the analysis enabled the articulation of six genres of chatbot use that were typical for participants included in the study. These comprise initial or long-term experimentation and the gradual identification of real-life applications, performing routine tasks connected to office jobs or education, getting help with tasks requiring specialized knowledge and skills the users did not have, acquiring fast and comprehensive advice anywhere and anytime, utilizing chatbots for brainstorming, planning, constructive feedback, and further minute assistance with their inputs, and having more-than-human conversations. Each of these categories encompasses diverse uses, motivations, actors, and objects, connected by typical situations in which users have found themselves. Consequently, this research provides a non-reductive insight into the usage of text-based generative LLM chatbots, centered on ordinary users and their everyday situated practices. |
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