In our fast-paced daily lives, whether we’re at work, on the go, or at home, we’re subject to stressors that negatively impact our well-being. Recently the World Health Organization declared that burnout is now an official medical diagnosis. One of the emerging applications of human-centric AI is to improve mental health and well-being by boosting resilience and recovery.  

The 2019 Affectiva Emotion AI Summit will highlight emotional health and wellness as one of the many thought-provoking topics in which Emotion AI is used today. One of the panel sessions entitled “Improve Emotional Well Being Where You Live, Work and Play with Emotion AI.” Panelists will include Dana Lowell, Global Director of Open Innovation & Technology Ventures at Faurecia, Alicia Roth, Design Consultant for  Innovation Hub, Mercy Health, and Jan Bruce, CEO and Co-Founder of meQuilibrium.

We had the opportunity to speak with one of these panelists, Jan Bruce, on her thoughts surrounding our Summit theme this year - “Human-Centric AI.” Her company, meQuilibrium, is  an engagement and performance platform that harnesses behavioral psychology to unleash workforce agility and full potential through resilience. Here’s what she had to say: 

What have been the biggest changes you’ve witnessed in AI?

As a society we have moved from suspicion to actual acceptance of interfacing directly with a bot, knowing it is a bot, accepting its limits but also getting value out of the experience.

Human-centered AI has had as a core tenet to be a system that understands humans from a socio-cultural perspective. What we are seeing is an interest by humans in having an AI system understand and support the emotional wellbeing and soft skill challenges that humans as workers are faced with every day by having deep knowledge of them–over a period of time–combined with a system of science for best outcomes. AI systems can now make highly informed recommendations for handling various scenarios and helping humans to examine the risks and advantages of the various scenarios.

Where do you see Human-Centric AI in five years? Ten?

In 5 years, interfacing with AI bots and capabilities will be routine and they will be  focused on solving domain specific problems for human beings – primarily, task oriented - and a utility humans become dependent upon to get things done.

In 10 years, we may reach singularity–AI may move from purposeful to possibly broad real learning.

As Human-Centric AI continues to evolve, what do you believe will be the biggest impact on consumer behavior?

It may be completely socially acceptable to check in with your “bot” when you are faced with a challenge and need to make a decision. Just as you would do now with a financial advisor before making a financial investment or a physician for a medical condition.

There are some pretty significant concerns about ethics and privacy violation involved with AI. How do you see these concerns been addressed in the future?

What AI means in the world of work will be determined by directly dealing with the implications of automation. This is a huge ethical and socio economic issue. Many workers fear that a robot will replace them as opposed to thinking that AI will empower them and help them learn new skills.  All workers, regardless of job role, will need to operate in an environment where humans will collaborate with smart machines and systems as part of their work teams.

Trust is a critical issue in interaction between intelligent digital systems and humans. Establishing clear rules for how information is handled and shared is key to move forward.

What are you most excited to see from Human-Centric AI in the future?

Deep learning AI models are capable of vastly surpassing the amount of data a human can analyze. This will greatly benefit our entire ecosystem, help humans change behavior, and manage the impacts of climate change.

Interested in learning more? Visit www.meQuilibrium.com, and don’t miss Jan’s panel at the 2019 Emotion AI Summit! meQuilibrium will also have a space in our exhibitor area, so you can experience their technology hands-on. We hope to see you there!