research-article

Voice Assistant Use in Long-Term Care

Authors:

Robin N. BrewerAuthors Info & Claims

CUI '23: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces

Article No.: 24, Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/3571884.3597135

Published: 19 July 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Research on voice assistants has primarily studied how people use them for informational needs, music requests, and to control electronic devices (e.g., IoT). Recent research suggests people such as older adults want to use them to address social and relational needs, but lacks empirical evidence to show how older adults are currently engaging in these behaviors. In this paper, we use a machine learning approach to analyze more than 600,000 queries that 456 older adults in assisted living communities made to Amazon Alexa devices over two years, classifying how older adults use voice assistants for social well-being purposes. We present empirical evidence showing how older adults engage in three primary relational behaviors with Alexa – 1) asking personal questions to "get to know" the assistant, 2) asking for advice and 3) engaging with the voice assistant to alleviate stress. We use these findings to discuss ethical implications of voice assistant use in long-term care settings.

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Cited By

Jones VYan CShade MBoron JYan ZHeselton HJohnson KDube V(2024)Reducing Loneliness and Improving Social Support among Older Adults through Different Modalities of Personal Voice AssistantsGeriatrics10.3390/geriatrics90200229:2(22)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics9020022
Park CJeong SKim J(2024)MaQA: A Manual Text-Based Approach for Car-Specific Question AnsweringElectronics10.3390/electronics1324497213:24(4972)Online publication date: 17-Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13244972
Toombs AMontague KWong RBrewer RNaik SParsons PSabanovic SWhitley DFarzan RLópez CCardoso Llach DQuercia DMustafa MNiu SWong-Villacrés M(2024)Future Dialogues: Personal AI Assistants and Their Interactions with Us and Each OtherCompanion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3678884.3687139(675-678)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3678884.3687139
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Voice Assistant Use in Long-Term Care
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Empirical studies in HCI

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cover image ACM Conferences

CUI '23: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces

July 2023

504 pages

ISBN:9798400700149

DOI:10.1145/3571884

Editors:
Minha Lee
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
,
Cosmin Munteanu
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Martin Porcheron
Bold Insight, UK
,
Johanne Trippas
RMIT University, Australia
,
Sarah Theres Völkel
Google, Germany

Copyright © 2023 ACM.

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Published: 19 July 2023

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CUI '23

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CUI '23: ACM conference on Conversational User Interfaces

July 19 - 21, 2023

Eindhoven, Netherlands

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Overall Acceptance Rate 34 of 100 submissions, 34%

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CUI '25

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Cited By

Jones VYan CShade MBoron JYan ZHeselton HJohnson KDube V(2024)Reducing Loneliness and Improving Social Support among Older Adults through Different Modalities of Personal Voice AssistantsGeriatrics10.3390/geriatrics90200229:2(22)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics9020022
Park CJeong SKim J(2024)MaQA: A Manual Text-Based Approach for Car-Specific Question AnsweringElectronics10.3390/electronics1324497213:24(4972)Online publication date: 17-Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13244972
Toombs AMontague KWong RBrewer RNaik SParsons PSabanovic SWhitley DFarzan RLópez CCardoso Llach DQuercia DMustafa MNiu SWong-Villacrés M(2024)Future Dialogues: Personal AI Assistants and Their Interactions with Us and Each OtherCompanion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3678884.3687139(675-678)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3678884.3687139
Wong NJeong SReddy MStamatis CLattie EJacobs M(2024)Voice Assistants for Mental Health Services: Designing Dialogues with Homebound Older AdultsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661536(844-858)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661536

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