The appropriation of Communicative Artificial Intelligence (ComAI) in higher education is increasingly transforming the academic landscape. Technologies like Chatbots, Workbots and automatic feedback systems are already impacting daily communication of students, teachers and administrators, and are shaping learning processes. As part of the research project ComAI – Communicative AI for Learning and Teaching, we have been analyzing how AI technologies are being integrated into higher education and the changes they bring about.  

For our research, we work with the concept of “hybrid figurations”, drawing on Norbert Elias’ sociological concept of “figurations” (Elias 1978, Elias 2009, Gabriel & Mennell 2011). According to Elias, figurations are networks of social relationships in which people are connected through mutual dependencies. In figurations, individuals and society are intertwined and cannot be separated.  

We expand the concept of figurations to reflect the reality that technologies are already deeply embedded in communicative processes. Rather than being external or separate from social processes, technologies are nowadays integral to the formation and transformation of societal structures and relationships (Hepp et al. 2018). Communicative figurations relate to specific frames of relevance (Higher Education), with communicative practices (in learning and teaching) in various actor constellations (teacher, learners, administrators, technology providers) wtin a specific media ensemble (Hepp, Breiter & Hasebrink 2018). With ComAI being part of it, hybrid figurations emerge. In these, ComAI is not seen as a replacement for human action, but as part of an expanded network where humans and machines together constitute what Hepp (2022) describes as "supra-individual agency." This implies that interactions with AI technologies encompass not only the individual expectations and projections of users, but also new, emergent logics of action that arise from the dynamic interplay between humans and machines. 

Our approach avoids a dichotomy between humans and machines, instead focusing on how these two interact within hybrid figurations. This perspective enables us to analyze current trends in the appropriations of ComAI in Higher Education and to understand its potential to transform communication processes in them.  

With this poster, we aim to present (1) the concept of hybrid figurations as the theoretical framework we use, (2) our extension of this framework to demonstrate the possible transformation of HEIs when ComAI becomes part of it and (3) give examples of how we plan to explore the field in an empirical way.   

The development of the concept of hybrid figurations is based on a literature-based analysis and interpretation of sociological concepts that make the human-machine constellation tangible and prepare it for our further empirical research. The preliminary work of Hepp (2018, 2022) provides a solid foundation for our research project, offering a basis for defining ComAI in the context of higher education institutions. Our goal is to shed light on how these hybrid figurations evolve and contribute to a deeper understanding of the impact of AI on communication within higher education. To briefly outline the methodological approach for our upcoming project goals: In the course of the empirical work, we will collect data from various sources and combine it with a multi-method approach. Firstly, data from large-scale surveys of students conducted in 2024 and 2025 by the Centre for Higher Education (CHE) will be utilized. The surveys were jointly developed with us and examined the extent to which students adopt AI technologies for learning and examinations. We will focus on two waves of surveys for different subject fields, each with 20,000 participants. Additionally, we will conduct interviews to explore how different stakeholders within HEIs, such as faculty, staff, and students, are coping with these changes. We will explore their concerns, challenges, and the implications of adopting AI technologies, addressing key topics such as data protection, the need for continuous training, and the adaptation of existing infrastructure within the HEIs IT governance.

With our poster, we present our concept of hybrid figurations, which offers a framework for understanding the complex interactions between human actors and ComAI in HEIs. By using this approach, we can visualize how these technologies shape communicative practices related to actors’ constellations within German HEIs. This concept is adaptable and can be used to illustrate the profound transformations ComAI can bring to communication within different HEis. At the ECER Conference, we aim to engage in discussions with participants about the current communicative practices in higher education institutions in Europe and how they are adapting to the changes brought about by ComAI. In our preliminary work, we classify machine-supported practices into key areas of learning and tutoring, advising and recommending, giving feedback and grading. Each of these communicative practices are part of hybrid figurations, where various stakeholders—such as students, teachers, administrators, nd external actors like policymakers and developers—interact with ComAI. The illustration is intended to be an inspiring addition to the ongoing discourse on higher education, which often focuses on the (uncontrollable) integration of AI. The concept can be adapted for all educational institutions that must address the current challenges of human-machine interactions. We plan to apply the model of hybrid figurations for our empirical data collection and would be delighted to present further research findings in the coming years.

Baur, N., & Ernst, S. (2011). Towards a process-oriented methodology: modern social science research methods and Norbert Elias's figurational sociology. In N. Gabriel & S. Mennell (eds.), Norbert Elias and Figurational Research: Processual Thinking in Sociology (pp. 117-139). Oxford: Blackwell. Elias, N. (1978). What is Sociology? London: Hutchinson, and New York: Columbia University Press, translated from German by Grace Morrissey and Stephen Mennell, from Was ist Soziologie? (Munich: Juventa, 1970). Elias, N. (2009). Figuration Essays III: On Sociology and the Humanities, Collected Works, Vol. 16 (pp. 1-3). Dublin: UCD Press.   Gabriel, N., & Mennell, S. (Hrsg.). (2011). Norbert Elias and Figurational Research. Processual Thinking in Sociology: Wiley Blackwell. Glăveanu, V. (2015). From Individual Agency to Co-agency. In: Gruber, C., Clark, M., Klempe, S., Valsiner, J. (eds) Constraints of Agency. Annals of Theoretical Psychology, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10130-9_15 Hepp, A., Breiter, A., & Hasebrink, U. (Eds.). (2018). Communicative Figurations: Transforming Communications in Times of Deep Mediatization. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65584-0  Hepp, A. (2022). Agency, social relations, and order: Media sociology’s shift into the digital" Communications, vol. 47, no. 3, 2022, pp. 470-493. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2020-0079