CHI2026 Workshop on Tools for Thought

Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI — From Vision to Implementation

April 16 2026 in Barcelona

Please note that this is an invitation-only workshop, as the format relies on the submissions and preparation of the invited participants. Therefore, we are unable to accept participants without accepted submissions.

When and where?

• Thursday, 16 April 2026, 14:15 – 18:00 CEST

• Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona, P1 - Room 122

News

• 2025 Workshop Synthesis

• 2026 Human Computer Interaction Journal Special Issue CFP

CHI 2026 Workshop Key Dates

- Deadline for submissions: Thursday, February 12 2026 AoE

- Notifications of acceptance: Wednesday, February 25 2026 AoE

- Deadline for uploading camera-ready version: Thursday, March 26 2026 AoE

• Workshop date: Thursday, 16 April 2026

About

GenAI radically widens the scope and capability of automation for work, learning, and creativity. While impactful, it also changes workflows, raising questions about its effects on cognition, including critical thinking and learning. Yet GenAI also offers opportunities for designing “tools for thought” (TfT) that protect and augment cognition. Such systems provoke critical thinking, provide personalized tutoring, or enable novel ways of sensemaking, among other approaches.

How does GenAI change workflows and human cognition? What are opportunities and challenges for designing GenAI systems that protect and augment thinking? Which theories, perspectives, and methods are relevant? This workshop aims to develop a multidisciplinary community interested in exploring these questions to protect against the erosion, and fuel the augmentation, of human cognition using GenAI.

This workshop is a follow-up to the CHI 2025 Tools for Thought workshop, which brought together 56 participants with 34 accepted submissions, culminating in a workshop synthesis and an HCI journal special issue on tools for thought. While last year’s workshop focussed on mapping the field, this edition moves towards developing operational frameworks, principles, and tools.

For more details, see our workshop proposal.

Feel free to join our Discord server, where you can ask questions, or discuss the topics of this workshop.

Workshop Themes

We invite contributions to our three core themes addressing questions such as:

1. TfT Strategies: Design and Usage

   How can GenAI be designed and applied as a tool for thought?

   • What are promising design strategies, including interface mechanisms, interaction designs, and design patterns that protect or augment human cognition?
   • What are effective usage strategies where AI is used to help people think, learn, create, and work better, even for general-purpose tools like ChatGPT that are not specifically designed as TfT?
   • How can we systematise specific examples into tangible, transferable strategies across domains and contexts?
   • What are useful framings for the role of GenAI (e.g., AI as provocateur or facilitator) that inspire effective design and usage?
   • Can we theoretically ground these strategies and provide empirical evidence for their effectiveness?

2. TfT Outcomes: Definition and Measurement

   What are the outcomes of tools for thought, and how do we measure them?

   • What counts as a “good” outcome for the people using a TfT? How do we define desirable outcomes beyond task performance?
   • How can we capture intermediary outcomes that are relevant for a workflow and thought process (e.g., artefacts like notes or diagrams that scaffold thinking)?
   • How can TfT be designed so that they avoid skipping over intermediary artefacts and outcomes that are important to the human thought process (e.g. for sensemaking, divergent thinking etc.)?
   • How do we measure cognitive outcomes such as understanding, learning, critical thinking, and metacognitive engagement?
   • What role do task outcomes (performance) play, and how do we balance them with cognitive goals?
   • What evaluation methods are appropriate for capturing the richness of cognition—including process tracing, artefact analysis, cognitive assessments, and longitudinal studies?
   • How can we account for context-dependent and qualitative dimensions of cognitive change?

3. TfT Experience and Adoption

   How can tools for thought achieve successful adoption and integration into people’s workflows?

   • What makes a good experience in a TfT, and how is it adequately balanced with the friction that might be required to support cognitive engagement?
   • How could the value of a TfT and the additional cognitive effort it might involve be communicated?
   • How might we foster people’s intrinsic motivation to use AI in ways that support improved cognitive outcomes?
   • How might we manage trade-offs between productivity and cognitive outcomes to maximise successful integration and sustained use?
   • Are there strategies that resolve possible tensions between productivity and cognitive outcomes, allowing users to achieve both?

What to Submit

Your submission should address at least one of the three themes above.

A workshop submission consists of:

1. Workshop paper: Up to 4 pages (excluding references) using the 2-column ACM format
2. Miro board “mini poster”: A filled-out Miro board template based on your contribution

We encourage drawing from and building upon existing theories where possible—such as from cognitive, behavioural, and educational/learning sciences.

Submissions can take diverse forms, including but not limited to:

• Novel design concepts or prototypes
• Empirical studies and evaluations
• Theoretical frameworks and design principles
• Usage strategies and case studies
• Measurement techniques and methodologies
• Critical reflections and provocations

We generally encourage contributions that are oriented towards operationalisation, meaning that they provide clear paths to implementation and use—be it for a study design, evaluation approach, or TfT interface design—and/or that they are targeted at existing AI tools/uses and in which ways they are (or are not) a TfT.

How to Submit

Submission Requirements:

1. Workshop paper:
   • Prepare your article according to the ACM article template with ‘sigconf’ style (\documentclass[sigconf,screen] {acmart}), or ACM primary article template if using Microsoft Word (Word template instructions). For details, see: https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions
   • Upload the PDF and the source files of your workshop paper (LaTeX source or Word document) via the submission form.
2. “Mini poster”:
   • Make sure you have a Miro account (you can create one for free).
   • Open the Miro board template.
   • Make sure that you are logged into your Miro account.
   • Create a copy of the Miro board template by following the instructions on the board. (Note that you won’t be able to create a duplicate if you aren’t logged into your Miro account.)
   • Once you have created a duplicate in your own account, fill out your copy of the template.
   • We created this sample Miro board to give you an idea of how a ‘mini poster’ could look like upon submission.
   • Please note that the Miro board should be mainly seen as a “scaffold” to help you reflect on your ideas (such as for a new AI tool) from different angles that are related to the workshop’s goal of further operationalising TfTs. Don’t worry too much if it should not be that straightforward for you to fill out all of the template elements. It is also fine if you just state why some of the elements/aspects might not be that relevant for your idea/contribution (e.g. for the type of AI tool you propose).
   • When you are done with your mini poster, create a sharing URL and export it as a PDF. Please follow the instructions on the Miro board for how to do this and include both the URL and PDF in your submission.
3. Number of attendees: Confirm the number of authors planning to attend (min. 1 and max. 2).
4. Personal statement: Prepare a max. 150-word personal statement for the attending author(s).

Tip: Filling out the mini poster template before or during the process of writing the workshop paper may help you structure the latter and include some of the aspects the poster template—but this is of course completely up to you.

Please note: Accepted submissions will be published on the workshop website. At least one author of each accepted submission must attend the workshop (and at most two authors may attend).

What Happens After Acceptance

The organisers will thematically cluster the Miro board mini posters to form participant groups for collaborative work during the workshop. Before the workshop, participants will be asked to read the submissions (especially the mini posters) of their group members to enable focused and productive discussions.

Workshop Format

This will be a 180-minute workshop organised around small group work:

1. Quick pitches: Groups among themselves present each other’s Miro board to kick-off the conversation
2. Collaborative work: Groups will work on tangible outputs of their choice (e.g., new frameworks, design principles, measurement techniques, theory development, or even low-fidelity TfT prototypes in a mini-hackathon style)
3. Group pitches: Each group will present their results to all participants

We aim for ~45 participants to foster rich discussion and meaningful collaboration.

Important Information

- Deadline for submissions: Thursday, February 12 2026 AoE

- Notifications of acceptance: Wednesday, February 25 2026 AoE

- Deadline for uploading camera-ready version: Thursday, March 26 2026 AoE

• Workshop date: Thursday, 16 April 2026

Questions? Contact us at chi.tft.workshop@gmail.com

List of Accepted Submissions

Organizers