The Gist
- Innovation surge. Emotionally intelligent AI is changing how businesses interact with customers by recognizing and responding to human emotions for more meaningful exchanges.
- Brand trust. Emotionally intelligent AI can facilitate trust between consumers and brands, which is crucial given the public’s general hesitancy to fully embrace AI technologies.
- Ethical concerns. Data privacy, bias, and ethical considerations pose challenges to the widespread adoption of emotionally intelligent AI, requiring careful planning and transparent practices.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving, and one of the most exciting areas of advancement is in the development of emotionally intelligent AI. Emotionally intelligent AI refers to AI systems that can understand, recognize and respond to human emotions. This is a challenging task, but it is one that is essential for creating AI systems that can truly interact with humans in a natural and meaningful way. In this article, we will explore the advances that are being made in emotionally intelligent AI, and will discuss the potential applications of this technology in marketing and customer experience.
Emotions and AI
Sean MacPhedran, senior director of innovation at the brand transformation agency SCS, told CMSWire that a positive emotional response is important in just about every customer’s interaction with a brand, whether it’s a smile during a connected TV spot or a transition from irritation to delight as a customer service chat takes a problem and resolves it. “Considerable research has been done outlining the fact that — even in B2B — a good emotional response to a brand communication means a lift in revenue.”
AI itself will not be emotionally aware in the same way that humans are, as it doesn’t have the biological and neurological structures that allow us to experience emotions. However, AI can be trained to recognize and respond to emotions in people using sentiment analysis and other technologies. Some of the ways AI can interpret emotions are:
- It can analyze human emotions through processing inputs like facial expressions, vocal patterns, tones, language and physiology.
- It can interpret and classify human emotional states using techniques such as sentiment analysis.
- It can mimic emotional expressions and responses through generated language, facial animations and voice modulation.
- It can personalize interactions and adapt behaviors based on detected human emotions and sentiments.
Sentiment analysis is a process of identifying the sentiment of a piece of text. This can be done by looking at the words that are used, the tone of the writing and the context in which the text is written. AI can be trained to perform sentiment analysis on a variety of data sources, such as social media posts, customer reviews, product feedback and even voice calls.
“Through textual sentiment analysis, for example, one could create a GPT-powered chatbot that is designed to adapt to customer emotions,” said MacPhedran. “If cameras in a subway detected a dreary morning mood in 100s of riders, adaptive ads could be served that are a bit more cheery.” MacPhedran gave the example of smart vending machines, which are already famed for changing prices based on weather, and might get a bit more emotionally intelligent with a camera coupled with AI and other contextual data points to make one to one messages based on a passerby’s emotions.
Once AI has been trained to recognize emotions, it can be used to develop applications that can respond to those emotions in helpful and appropriate ways. For example, an AI-powered customer service chatbot could be trained to identify and respond to customer frustration. When a customer is frustrated, the chatbot could offer additional assistance, apologize for the inconvenience, or transfer the customer to a live agent, enhancing customer satisfaction and improving the overall customer experience.
Emotionally intelligent AI is still in its early stages of development, but it has the potential to revolutionize many industries and make a positive impact on society. By helping us to better understand and respond to each other’s emotions, emotionally intelligent AI can make our world a more empathetic and compassionate place. It is important to note that emotionally intelligent AI is not a replacement for human interaction. AI can be a valuable tool for helping us to understand and respond to emotions, but it should not be used to replace the relationships that businesses have with their customers.
Kristin Wozniak, global lead of customer success at Plus Company, the Entrepreneurial Network, told CMSWire that emotionally intelligent AI aims to enhance human-to-computer/computer-to-human interactions by making AI systems more empathetic, responsive and capable of understanding human emotions. While this opens up vast opportunities, it’s also a double-edged sword. “It’s exactly this capability that makes emotionally intelligent AI an incredible tool for brands to build better relationships with consumers but also a tool that could easily threaten those relationships.”
Related Article: Sentiment Analysis Improves the Customer Experience
The Benefits of Emotionally Intelligent AI
Emotionally intelligent AI has the power to transform a vast range of industries by enabling more natural, meaningful interactions between humans and machines. In sectors from healthcare to education, emotionally aware AI systems that can perceive and simulate emotional states are demonstrating immense potential.
These seemingly emotional AI applications facilitate trust in consumers, something that is vital for the public acceptance of AI in industries. According to a 2023 Statista survey conducted with marketers in the United States, 73% of respondents indicated that they are using generative AI. Unfortunately, the public at large still does not entirely trust AI. A 2022 KPMG global survey revealed that 61% of respondents are either ambivalent or unwilling to trust AI. For those who expressed trust in AI, its use in healthcare and security contexts was trusted the most compared to other possible applications.
By accurately detecting emotions through analysis of facial expressions, vocal tones, language and physiological signs, AI systems can interpret human sentiment and respond appropriately. This empathetic capability allows AI assistants, tutors, robots and virtual companions to provide comfort, customize interactions and promote safety based on emotional cues.
Justin Luh, senior brand strategist at Audacity Health, told CMSWire that a key aspect of emotionally intelligent AI is its ability to connect with stakeholders on a deeper level, recognizing the intricate relationships between patients, their families, healthcare providers, executives, investors and payors. “By comprehending the complex emotional aspects of healthcare decision-making, these AI systems can tailor messaging and tactics to resonate with individual audience groups.” Luh believes that emotionally intelligent AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare marketing, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of stakeholders and ultimately better patient care.
The benefits of emotional AI for marketers are vast, though largely untapped. “Emotionally intelligent AI has shown great promise in helping marketers segment and learn about their targets more intimately,” said Luh. “When we use AI to understand and empathize with the human experience, we can create more nuanced, compassionate, and effective marketing strategies.” Luh suggested that the ability to tap into the emotional needs of various stakeholder groups has the potential to foster stronger connections and create informed decisions in the healthcare sector.
Related Article: 3 Ways Sentiment Analysis Can Improve the Customer Experience
The Challenges of Emotionally Intelligent AI
The use of new technology always comes with challenges, and brands may run into a number of them when implementing emotionally intelligent AI. Here are a few of the most common challenges they may face:
- Data collection and privacy: Emotionally intelligent AI needs to be trained on a large dataset of human emotions. This data can be difficult and expensive to collect, and there are privacy concerns associated with collecting and storing such data. As Wozniak asked, “Are people okay with their emotional responses being tracked and analyzed for marketing purposes?”
- Bias: Emotionally intelligent AI can be biased, just like other AI systems. This bias can be caused by the data that the AI is trained on, or by the way that the AI is designed. It is important to be aware of the potential for bias and to take steps to eliminate it.
- Ethics: There are a number of ethical considerations that brands need to be aware of when using emotionally intelligent AI. How can brands ensure that it is used in a fair and responsible manner? “Is using AI to evoke specific emotions in consumers manipulative or deceptive,” asked Wozniak?
In addition to these general challenges, brands may also face specific challenges when implementing emotionally intelligent AI in their own industry. For example, brands in the healthcare industry may need to comply with HIPAA regulations when collecting and storing patient data. Brands in the financial services industry may need to comply with know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations when using emotionally intelligent AI to verify customer identities.
Wozniak said that now, more than ever, consumers are looking for authenticity in their brand relationships, and it’s this desire for authenticity that is driving the overall interest in emotionally intelligent AI for brands. “If it’s done well, the pay off will be huge: consumers will feel a consistent connection and trust with a brand through all touchpoints and connections, and their loyalty to that brand will grow,” Wozniak explained, who added that if the AI fails, the consumer will struggle to forgive that brand for breaking their trust. “And moreover, if the AI fails and the consumer can’t get what they need (e.g. they are stuck in an endless loop with a chatbot), trust will be broken and the very fundamentals of a consumer/product relationship will be damaged.”
Despite the challenges, there are a myriad of benefits to successfully implementing emotionally intelligent AI. It can help brands to better understand and respond to customer needs, improve customer satisfaction, and increase employee productivity. By carefully considering the challenges and benefits, brands can make an informed decision about whether or not to implement emotionally intelligent AI. Some tips for those brands are:
- Start small: Don’t try to implement emotionally intelligent AI across your entire organization overnight. Start by piloting a project in one area, such as customer service or employee engagement. This will help to identify and address any challenges before you scale up.
- Transparency: Be transparent with your customers and employees about how you are using emotionally intelligent AI. Let them know what data you are collecting, how you are using it and what safeguards you have in place to protect their privacy.
- Be ethical: Use emotionally intelligent AI in a fair and responsible manner. Don’t use it to manipulate or exploit people. Make sure that you have a clear understanding of the ethical implications of using emotionally intelligent AI.
By following these tips, brands can minimize the challenges and maximize the benefits associated with the implementation of emotionally intelligent AI.
The Future of Emotionally Intelligent AI
In the future, emotionally intelligent AI is likely to be used in a wide range of applications, including healthcare, education, human resources, customer service and entertainment. For example, it could be used to develop new diagnostic tools and treatment plans in healthcare, personalize learning experiences in education, and improve employee recruitment and retention in human resources.
The future promises AI caregivers that uplift patients through dark times with compassion, AI teachers that nurture student growth by adapting to their emotional needs, AI assistants that deliver relaxing rather than stressful user experiences, and more. The benefits run deep for consumers, employees and brands.
Emotionally intelligent AI also has the potential to help us to better understand and manage our own emotions, as well as to build stronger relationships with others. The technology could also help us to create more human-centered products and services, and to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
“For years, I have struggled with the way in which the industry builds ‘target audiences’, and we end up with personas or audiences that are full of stereotypes (e.g. as a mom of two, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I dislike most of the narratives that fuel ads ‘targeted to moms’, but that’s a whole other story),” explained Wozniak. “We have relied on the same systems to try to understand and connect with consumers for decades, and while we’ve improved certain parts of the process here and there, we’ve not truly overhauled it in a long time.”
Wozniak hopes that the growing interest and use of AI and emotionally intelligent AI will be the motivation we need to rethink the industry and start doing things differently and better. “For me, that starts with finding empathy and compassion for the people we want to connect with as marketers. Emotionally intelligent AI may be a way for us to do that so much better.”
Final Thoughts on Emotionally Intelligent AI
Emotionally intelligent AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries, from marketing and advertising to customer service and healthcare. However, it’s important to be aware of the challenges, such as data collection, bias and ethics. By carefully considering the challenges and benefits, brands and consumers can make informed decisions about how to implement this technology.
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