Unobtrusive Assistance Mode
A graded mode of AI use in which the system functions as an unobtrusive support to the user's work rhythm, contributing when prompted without overriding or steering the activity.
Operational Definition
STATE. Rated across a session as the degree of unobtrusiveness: scored from intrusive (AI introduces unrequested redirections that interrupt the user's flow) to unobtrusive (AI contributions stay within the user's initiative), anchored to the ratio of user-initiated to AI-initiated topic shifts.
Measurement Schema
Proposed measurement protocol (not yet empirically validated): Initiative-balance index from transcript coding: count user-initiated vs. AI-initiated topic shifts and unsolicited redirections; report AI-initiation share (AI-initiated / total shifts) as a continuous unobtrusiveness index; inter-rater agreement would be assessed via Cohen's kappa on the initiation labels.