Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jul 27, 2020
Date Accepted: Sep 17, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The AI-Chatbot Behavior Change Model: Designing AI Chatbots for Promoting Physical Activity and Healthy Diet
ABSTRACT
Background:
Chatbots empowered by artificial intelligence (AI) can increasingly engage in natural conversations and build relationships with users. Applying AI chatbots to lifestyle modification programs is one of the promising areas to develop cost-effective and reachable behavior interventions to promote physical activity (PA) and healthy diet.
Objective:
The purposes of this perspective paper are to present a brief literature review of chatbot use in promoting PA and healthy diet, describe the AI-Chatbot Behavior Change Model our research team developed based on extensive interdisciplinary research, and discuss ethical principles and considerations.
Methods:
The purposes of this perspective paper are to present a brief literature review of chatbot use in promoting PA and healthy diet, describe the AI-Chatbot Behavior Change Model our research team developed based on extensive interdisciplinary research, and discuss ethical principles and considerations.
Results:
This review found a lack of understanding around theoretical guidance and practical recommendations on designing AI chatbots for lifestyle modification programs. The AI-Chatbot Behavior Change Model we propose consists of four domains to provide such a guidance: 1) designing chatbot characteristics and understanding user backgrounds; 2) building relational capacity; 3) building persuasive conversational capacity; and 4) evaluating mechanisms and outcomes. Each domain details the rationale and evidence supporting the design and evaluation choices.
Conclusions:
As AI chatbots become increasingly integrated in various digital communications, our proposed theoretical framework is a first step to conceptualize the scope of its utilization in health behavior change domains and to synthesize all possible dimensions of chatbot features to inform intervention design and evaluation. We call for more interdisciplinary work to continue developing AI techniques to improve chatbot’s relational and persuasive capacities to change PA and diet behaviors with strong ethical principles. Clinical Trial: N/A
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