Joshua Holstein is a postdoctoral researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where he also completed his doctoral studies together with the Bayer AG. He holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from KIT and a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt. His academic background includes a semester abroad at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel. He joined the Applied AI Lab of the Digital Service Innovation Group in July 2022.

Research Focus

His research centers on the design of effective human-AI collaboration systems and their impact on human decision-making. Combining behavioral experiments with design science methods, he studies how decision-makers form mental models of AI systems and how these models shape decision outcomes. His work develops and evaluates interventions such as uncertainty communication, explainability, and incentive alignment to position AI as a tool for thought that augments human reflection and improves the quality of collaborative decision-making, rather than displacing human judgment through overreliance or misinformation effects.

• Human-AI Collaboration
• Uncertainty Communication and Explainability
• Mental Models and Decision-Making
• GenAI as a Tool for Thought

Projects

• Data Understanding

Teaching

• Artificial Intelligence in Service Systems: Generative AI & Adoption (SS25, SS26)
• Artificial Intelligence in Service Systems: Applications in Computer Vision (SS 23, SS 24)
• Artificial Intelligence in Service Systems (WS24/25, WS25/26)
• Applied AI in Service Systems (WS24)
• Seminar: Data Science for Industrial Applications (SS 23, SS 24)