Highlights
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Human-machine communication (HMC) reached a major milestone this summer, earning official Division status from the International Communication Association and recognition as an established field of communication research.
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UCF Professors Jihyun Kim and Patric Spence have helped shape HMC through research, international leadership and the creation of a dedicated scholarly journal.
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With emerging technologies increasingly integrated into everyday life, HMC researchers are exploring how people can communicate with them in ways that strengthen relationships, build trust and improve decision-making.
As artificial intelligence (AI), virtual assistants and robots become increasingly woven into everyday life, more researchers are asking this question: What happens when technology stops being just a tool and becomes something we can communicate with?
UCF faculty have spent years helping create a field dedicated to finding the answers.
“Human-machine communication is about studying how humans perceive and interact with technology as a communicator rather than simply as a tool.”
This summer, human-machine communication (HMC) reached a major milestone when the International Communication Association (ICA) elevated it from an interest group to an official Division, recognizing it as an established area of communication research. The achievement reflects the rapid growth of a field exploring how emerging technologies are reshaping the way people communicate, form relationships and make decisions.
“Human-machine communication is about studying how humans perceive and interact with technology as a communicator rather than simply as a tool,” UCF College of Sciences Professor Jihyun Kim says. “It’s about communicating with machine agents as interaction partners.”
Among those who helped shape the field are faculty members Kim and Professor Patric Spence, whose leadership has contributed to HMC’s development both at UCF and within the international research community.
When Technology Becomes the Communicator
Traditional studies of technology-mediated communication typically examine technology as a channel connecting people. HMC shifts the focus to interactions between people and technologies such as AI assistants, social robots and virtual companions.
Researchers explore how these interactions can influence everything from trust and relationships to decision-making and communication.
Although scholars have studied human-computer interaction for decades, HMC is a relatively young field within the communication discipline. It formally emerged in 2015, bringing together researchers interested in studying machines not simply as tools, but as communicators.
Since then, the rapid adoption of generative AI has accelerated both public interest and scholarly research.
Kim, who recently completed a four-year leadership term with ICA’s Human-Machine Communication Interest Group, witnessed that growth firsthand.
“During my four years in leadership, I saw a drastic increase in the volume of HMC research,” she says. “I also saw scholars from interpersonal communication, organizational communication, public relations and many other communication specialties begin collaborating to better understand AI from their own perspectives.”
“We’re studying how humans perceive AI and communicate with it for good outcomes.”
But as public conversations increasingly focus on whether AI could replace human work or relationships, Kim says that鈥檚 a common misconception about human-machine communication research.
“A lot of times people assume we’re glorifying AI, but that’s not what we study,” Kim says. “We’re studying how humans perceive AI and communicate with it for good outcomes.”
Her own research explores how people perceive and interact with AI or machine agents and how people can instead use AI to strengthen, rather than replace, human relationships.
“I’m studying augmentation,鈥� Kim says. 鈥淗ow can AI help strengthen the relationships we already have? How can we communicate with AI more effectively, so it enhances our social relationships instead of replacing them?”
Building a Scholarly Home
As interest in HMC grew, so did the need for a dedicated scholarly community.
Spence was among the founding members who organized the first HMC post-conference in 2016, creating one of the first formal spaces where researchers with shared interests could collaborate and exchange ideas.
“Through our research and leadership, we’ve helped put UCF on the international stage.”
He later helped establish the journal, which launched in 2020 and is hosted under a UCF domain. Before its creation, researchers published HMC studies across broader communication journals, as no publication was dedicated exclusively to the emerging field. The journal provided a central platform for sharing HMC research and scholarship, building an international academic community, and further positioning UCF as a leader in the discipline.
“Whenever we do something meaningful in this field, UCF is represented alongside that achievement,” Kim says. “Through our research and leadership, we’ve helped put UCF on the international stage.”
Kim continued that work during her tenure as vice chair and later chair of ICA鈥檚 Human-Machine Communication Interest Group. She focused on mentoring early-career researchers, expanding the field’s international presence and helping prepare the review dossier that ultimately led to HMC’s elevation to Division status.
From Momentum to Milestone
For Kim, the new designation signals more than organizational growth.
“[The recognition] especially matters for junior scholars because they’re contributing to a discipline that’s formally recognized by the world’s largest communication association.”
“Having this formal recognition within the International Communication Association sends the message that human-machine communication is now an established field,” Kim says. “It especially matters for junior scholars because they’re contributing to a discipline that’s formally recognized by the world’s largest communication association.”
The milestone is expected to create new opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, including partnerships with researchers studying AI from technical, behavioral and social perspectives.
And as AI continues to evolve, Kim believes HMC will continue growing alongside it, helping researchers better understand not only the technologies themselves but also the people who use them.
“We want to make sure it’s not about studying bad things,” Kim says. “It’s about how we can leverage what AI offers to improve our lives and how we can communicate more effectively.”
