Knowing Isn't Understanding: Re-grounding Generative Proactivity with Epistemic and Behavioral Insight

ArXi:2602.15259v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Generative AI agents equate understanding with resolving explicit queries, an assumption that confines interaction to what users can articulate. This assumption breaks down when users themselves lack awareness of what is missing, risky, or worth considering. In such conditions, proactivity is not merely an efficiency enhancement, but an epistemic necessity. We refer to this condition as epistemic incompleteness: where progress depends on engaging with unknown unknowns for effective partnership.