# CHOIR: A Chatbot-mediated Organizational Memory Leveraging Communication in University Research Labs

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20512 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.20512/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 114 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Sep 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [QMSum: A New Benchmark for Query-based Multi-domain Meeting Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.05938/) (2021)
- [Beyond the Chat: Executable and Verifiable Text-Editing with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15337/) (2023)
- [Calendar.help: Designing a Workflow-Based Scheduling Agent with Humans in the Loop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.08428/) (2017)
- [EmailSum: Abstractive Email Thread Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.14691/) (2021)
- [Summaries, Highlights, and Action items: Design, implementation and evaluation of an LLM-powered meeting recap system](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15793/) (2023)
- [Copying style, Extracting value: Illustrators' Perception of AI Style Transfer and its Impact on Creative Labor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17410/) (2024)
- [Understanding Questions that Arise When Working with Business Documents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15073/) (2022)
- [Group Chat Ecology in Enterprise Instant Messaging: How Employees Collaborate Through Multi-User Chat Channels on Slack](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01756/) (2019)
- [CommunityClick: Capturing and Reporting Community Feedback from Town Halls to Improve Inclusivity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.09053/) (2020)
- [From Fake Perfects to Conversational Imperfects: Exploring Image-Generative AI as a Boundary Object for Participatory Design of Public Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.00949/) (2024)
- [Nooks: Social Spaces to Lower Hesitations in Interacting with New People at Work](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.02223/) (2023)
- [Pitfalls in Effective Knowledge Management: Insights from an International Information Technology Organization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07737/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [TUX: Measuring Human--AI Tacit Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30930/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

University research labs often rely on chat-based platforms for communication and project management, where valuable knowledge surfaces but is easily lost in message streams. Documentation can preserve knowledge, but it requires ongoing maintenance and is challenging to navigate. Drawing on formative interviews that revealed organizational memory challenges in labs, we designed CHOIR, an LLM-based chatbot that supports organizational memory through four key functions: document-grounded Q&A, Q&A sharing for follow-up discussion, knowledge extraction from conversations, and AI-assisted document updates. We deployed CHOIR in four research labs for one month (n=21), where the lab members asked 107 questions and lab directors updated documents 38 times in the organizational memory. Our findings reveal a privacy-awareness tension: questions were asked privately, limiting directors' visibility into documentation gaps. Students often avoided contribution due to challenges in generalizing personal experiences into universal documentation. We contribute design implications for privacy-preserving awareness and supporting context-specific knowledge documentation.