Welzijn.AI: Developing responsible conversational AI for the care of older people through stakeholder involvement

We present Welzijn.AI, a new digital solution for monitoring (mental) well-being in older populations, and illustrate how the development of systems like Welzijn.AI can align with guidelines on responsible AI development.

Three different evaluations with various groups of stakeholders were designed to disclose new perspectives on the strengths, weaknesses, design characteristics, and value requirements of Welzijn.AI. Evaluations consisted of expert panels with patient representatives, general practitioners, researchers, and older people themselves. Panels were involved in interviews, a co-creation session, and an evaluation of a proof-of-concept implementation of Welzijn.AI.

Interview results were summarized in terms of Welzijn.AI's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The co-creation session ranked a variety of value requirements of Welzijn.AI with the Hundred Dollar Method. The proof-of-concept evaluation entailed analysing proportions of (dis)agreement on statements targeting Welzijn.AI's design characteristics, and ranking desired social characteristics.

Stakeholders in the interviews acknowledged Welzijn.AI's potential to combat loneliness and extract patterns from the linguistic behaviour of older people. The proof-of-concept evaluation complemented the design characteristics most appealing to older people to achieve empathetic and varying interactions. Stakeholders linked the technology to the implementation context: Welzijn.AI can unlock an individual's social network, but practice sessions and continuous support should also be available to empower users. Yet, stakeholders also disclosed challenges to a proper understanding of the application, and issues concerning privacy were also highlighted.

Incorporating all stakeholder perspectives in system development remains challenging. Still, our results benefit researchers, policymakers, and health professionals who aim to improve the care for older people through the use of technology.