When Help Hurts: Verification Load and Fatigue with AI Coding Assistants (CCF A)
Published in CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026, 2026
A mixed-methods study comparing Inline, Chat, and Structured AI coding assistant modes. This paper introduces the “verification-load” index capturing failures, churn, and context switches to understand when AI assistance becomes counterproductive.
Keywords: Programming/Development Support, Workplaces, AI Assistance, Verification Load, Developer Experience
Subcommittee: Understanding People: Mixed & Alternative Methods; User Experience & Usability
Recommended citation: Fan, G., Liu, D., et al. (2026). When Help Hurts: Verification Load and Fatigue with AI Coding Assistants. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026). ACM.