The effect of online review personification of the Conversational Artificial Agents (CAI) products on the reader’s decision-making

With the widespread adoption of conversational AIs (CAIs), like Amazon Echo Dot and Google Nest, consumers have started personifying these devices during social engagement and while sharing their reviews of the CAI products. However, little is known about how these interactions and expressions of personification impact other aspects of business and society. The paper proposes investigating differences between personified and non-personified product reviews, and how these differences impact a reader\u27s perception of the helpfulness of the review, willingness to purchase and price to pay for a CAI product. This paper discusses its findings from the exploratory study done on the data from 44,699 CAI reviews and proposes experiment studies to investigate the test the proposed research model

“Like another human being in the room”: a community case study of smart speakers to reduce loneliness in the oldest-old

This community case study examined the potential benefits of smart speakers to tackle loneliness in the oldest old adults living in supported accommodation. The program was established as a collaboration between the supported accommodation provider and a technology company to explore the feasibility of smart speakers to alleviate resident loneliness. Loneliness in later life often accompanies a shrinking social circle, loss of a spouse or increased disability. People aged 85 years of age and over are increasingly likely to experience these life events, leading to an increased risk of social isolation and loneliness. Five older people, mean age 90 years of age, who resided in supported accommodation, were given a smart speaker for 8 weeks to examine their experience with the voice assistant. The experiences of the five older adults are explored as case studies, with each person interviewed both before and after receiving the smart speaker. All five valued their smart speaker, recognised its potential for tackling loneliness, and wanted to keep it. The three most lonely individuals reported that their smart speaker made them feel less lonely and isolated through two mechanisms: (i) creating a presence and (ii) having some control over their situation. Although only a small study, these experiences suggest providing smart speakers for lonely and isolated oldest-old people, could be one way to help combat loneliness in community settings

Designing for Harm Reduction: Communication Repair for Multicultural Users' Voice Interactions

Voice assistants' inability to serve people-of-color and non-native English speakers has largely been documented as a quality-of-service harm. However, little work has investigated what downstream harms propagate from this poor service. How does poor usability materially manifest and affect users' lives? And what interaction designs might help users recover from these effects? We identify 6 downstream harms that propagate from quality-of-service harms in voice assistants. Through interviews and design activities with 16 multicultural participants, we unveil these 6 harms, outline how multicultural users uniquely personify their voice assistant, and suggest how these harms and personifications may affect their interactions. Lastly, we employ techniques from psychology on communication repair to contribute suggestions for harm-reducing repair that may be implemented in voice technologies. Our communication repair strategies include: identity affirmations (intermittent frequency), cultural sensitivity, and blame redirection. This work shows potential for a harm-repair framework to positively influence voice interactions.Comment: 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24

Older Adults’ Perceptions of Intelligent Voice Assistant Privacy, Transparency, and Online Privacy Guidelines

The significant increase in the availability of intelligent virtual assistants (IVA) such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home provides a potential array of benefits to the daily life of older adult consumers; however, this increased consumption has also given rise to fears concerning privacy and security thereby limiting use by some groups. Our investigation explores older adults’ experiences and understanding of intelligent voice assistants. In a pilot study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with seven older adults to identify their understanding of IVAs and any concerns. We found that knowledge of IVA privacy practices, data use and management are key concerns for older adults. Additionally, while online privacy guidelines exist to help mitigate user concerns and address questions, many older adults in our study were unaware that these resources exist and felt that while useful they needed improvement to help older adults better navigate privacy control. Our findings suggest that to aid adoption, it is important to address older adults' concerns about privacy, data management, and how IVAs work. Therefore, our findings have the potential to inform the design and presentation privacy guidelines in the future

A Question of Access: Exploring the Perceived Benefits and Barriers of Intelligent Voice Assistants for Improving Access to Consumer Health Resources Among Low-Income Older Adults

Intelligent voice assistants (IVAs) such as Amazon Echo and Google Home present a promising opportunity to improve access to consumer health information and resources for older adults. However, researchers know little about older adults' opinions of using IVAs for these potentially critical tasks, particularly those with already limited access. In this paper, we explore older adults' views about IVAs for consumer health and wellness information with the goal of better understanding what they envision as benefits and barriers of using such technology in the future. We shared an IVA prototype with ten older adults (60 years of age or older). We interviewed them about how a similar system might impact their access to consumer health information. Participants saw the potential for IVAs to improve their search experiences and support them with other health tasks. However, participants were also concerned about adopting an IVA for health due to access barriers, confidentiality risks, and concerns about receiving trusted information. Based on our findings, we discuss considerations for designing IVAs for underserved, older adult populations

Understanding Older Adults' Perceptions and Challenges in Using AI-enabled Everyday Technologies

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled everyday technologies could help address age-related challenges like physical impairments and cognitive decline. While recent research studied older adults' experiences with specific AI-enabled products (e.g., conversational agents and assistive robots), it remains unknown how older adults perceive and experience current AI-enabled everyday technologies in general, which could impact their adoption of future AI-enabled products. We conducted a survey study (N=41) and semi-structured interviews (N=15) with older adults to understand their experiences and perceptions of AI. We found that older adults were enthusiastic about learning and using AI-enabled products, but they lacked learning avenues. Additionally, they worried when AI-enabled products outwitted their expectations, intruded on their privacy, or impacted their decision-making skills. Therefore, they held mixed views towards AI-enabled products such as AI, an aid, or an adversary. We conclude with design recommendations that make older adults feel inclusive, secure, and in control of their interactions with AI-enabled products.Comment: The Tenth International Symposium of Chinese CHI (Chinese CHI 2022

Seniors and technology: can cognitive age and life events explain the gaps?

Purpose of the paper: this paper aims to identify good descriptors of the differences among the elderly, particularly suitable for technology use. Specifically, cognitive age and life events are compared to demographic age. Methodology: a survey was conducted, and three cluster analyses were performed to reach three different segmentations: cohort, cognitive-age and life-event-based segmentations. Findings: the conducted cluster analysis highlights multifaceted consumption trends also in relation to technology, both in the case of using cognitive age as a segmentation criterion and in the case of appealing to events actually lived. Research limits: although alternative segmentation parameters to the chronological age were examined to test their validity, these criteria were used separately, while the analysis of a complex group like Seniors would require a multidimensional approach. Practical implications: our study provides important operational indications to managers who need to understand the different consumption trends and dynamics of the use of technology by elderly consumers in order to define tailor-made offers of products and/or services. Facilitating the use of technology by the elderly has interesting implications in terms of social and economic impact, too. Originality of the paper: although many have highlighted the need to identify effective criteria for the segmentation of such a heterogeneous target in terms of expressed needs, there are currently few studies in this field, especially concerning the use of technology

Enabling by voice: An exploratory study on how Interactive Smart Agents (ISA) can change the design of Environmental Control (EC) equipment and service

This thesis was submitted for the award of Master of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe use of well-designed assistive devices may improve the quality of life of individuals living with severe and permanent impairments and reduce the burden on their caregivers. Interactive Smart Agents (ISA)s use the latest smart home technology to control devices around the house through voice interfaces. This study aims to investigate whether ISAs may be effective to support individuals who are affected by multiple sclerosis, stroke, spinal cord injury (SCI) or other neurological ailments. This study’s approach is user-centred to ensure inclusion. This study includes two main parts: 1. the initial development of a technology adoption model informed by secondary research and exploratory primary data, 2. a second in-depth investigation of the initially identified constructs and relationships through a multipoints qualitative study. After data analysis the initial model was altered to reflect the insights generated by the primary research. By using this modified technology adoption model, designers and manufacturers can make changes in their future ISA devices so that they can be better suited to the needs of users with severe mobility impairments. This research is in collaboration with the North Thames Regional Environmental Control Services (NTRECES), an NHS organisation that provides Environmental Control (EC) devices to manage the patients’ electrical and computing appliances. Clinical staff have indicated an increasing patients’ demand of ISAs instead of traditional EC devices and have suggested that their clients are keen to experiment with more intuitive interfaces. The originality of this work consists of bringing together two established schools of thoughts, the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to arrive at a model that specifically considers adoption and usability factors relevant to a niche service user group (people with severe mobility impairments) and a specific technology, ISAs. This research has uncovered that, novelty, and ease of voice interaction as well as its entertainment value played a key role in the decision to adopt an ISA device. Users are willing to overlook the reliability, privacy and security issues if a back-up device is present and as most of the functions the users require are not security and privacy critical.Brunel Partners Academic Centre for Health Sciences (BPACHS

MindTalker: Navigating the Complexities of AI-Enhanced Social Engagement for People with Early-Stage Dementia

People living with dementia are at risk of social isolation, and conversational AI agents can potentially support such individuals by reducing their loneliness. In our study, a conversational AI agent, called MindTalker, co-designed with therapists and utilizing the GPT-4 Large Language Model (LLM), was developed to support people with early-stage dementia, allowing them to experience a new type of “social relationship” that could be extended to real life. Eight PwD engaged with MindTalker for one month or even longer, and data was collected from interviews. Our findings emphasized that participants valued the novelty of AI, but sought more consistent, deeper interactions. They desired a personal touch from AI, while stressing the irreplaceable value of human interactions. The findings underscore the complexities of AI engagement dynamics, where participants commented on the artificial nature of AI, highlighting important insights into the future design of conversational AI for this population