PhD candidate for dissertation on trust in intelligent assistants

Life is always about becoming... In life it is about going on a journey to become the best version of our future self. As we discover new things, we face challenges, master them and grow beyond us.

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Number: MER0003XJ5 In the field of Future Software & AI, we develop the concepts and digital experiences of tomorrow. The Future Customer Software Innovations team is responsible for software innovations in and around the vehicle: seamless integration of digital functions, AI-based features, new service models and augmented reality content. We work closely with other fields of research & development, corporate strategy and sales to share ideas from validation to rollout. In recent years, intelligent agents have taken a rapid development and have established themselves in various places in our everyday life, such as our smartphone, our smart homes and our vehicles. Through the continuous and rapid technological advances in fields such as sensor technology, signal processing and generic AI, intelligent agents are more and more able to imitate human capabilities, such as logical thoughts and argumentation. This growing and growing intelligence enables agents to make decisions or propose to become proactive in interaction or even perform actions completely autonomously. While these skills open up the opportunity to make user experiences more natural, efficient and predictive depending on the user context and the environment situation, the design of the increasingly multimodal interaction between user and agent opens up a variety of new, open research fields. For example, the question opens up: How can a suitable degree of trust be created and maintained between the system and the user? On the way to the future of trusted AI agents, we are looking for support through a doctoral student at the interdisciplinary interface between technology, design and psychology for the design/development, prototypical realization and evaluation of concepts for the alignment of trust in the interaction between users and artificial intelligence. As part of the doctoral thesis, the following challenges come to you: Research on theories and concepts of trust in human-human and human-machine interaction

Ideas and Conception of Approaches and Processes for Confidentiality between Users and AI

Design and prototypical implementation of designed concepts in our digital, multi-modal prototyping environments, seat boxes, and test vehicles

Evaluation of concepts and prototypes both through reviews with experts and through studies with end users

Planning, organisation, implementation, evaluation and documentation of user studies

Definition and supervision of subtasks in the context of final work

Publication of research results at high-level conferences and trade journals

The activity can begin from April 2026. Adjustment requirement is the support of the doctoral project by a university lecturer. The selection of a corresponding person is the responsibility of the doctoral student.

Master's degree in UI/UX Design, Human Computer Interaction, Information Technology and Design, Media Informatics or a comparable degree course focusing on UI/UX, Artificial Intelligence or User Experience

Conceptual thinking, passion for UX topics and strong interest in in interdisciplinary problems

Creativity and experience in designing and creating digital prototypes with common UI/UX design & prototype tools (e.g. Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Protopie)

Very good knowledge and first experience in the development of UX/UI concepts, ideally combined with good knowledge in UX technologies & UX software

Experience in and understanding technologies of artificial intelligence and their application (especially generative AI)

Ideally practical experience in one or more programming languages (e.g. Python, Javascript)

Ideally experience in the planning, implementation and evaluation of user studies

Fun at independent work and challenges, recognizable by high motivation, willingness to implement, commitment, team capacity and active communication, analytical thinking and strategic working.

Secure knowledge of German and English in word and writing

Ideally a driving licence class B

Additional information: Doctorate in the Mercedes-Benz Group! Benefit from our know-how, an international expertise network, research materials, work insights and personal support by mentors – in addition to your university. Further information can be found here. We look forward to your online application with CV, Letters and Certificates. Please do not forget to mark your documents as ''relevant for this application' in the online form and note the maximum file size of 5 MB. Disabled and equalized applicants are welcome! The severely disabled representative (SBV-Sindelfingen@mercedes-benz.com) is happy to support you in the application process. HR Services will be happy to help you with questions about the application process. You can reach us by email via myhrservice@mercedes-benz.com or by phone at 0711/17-99000 (Mo-Fr 10-12am & 13-15am).

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