This report summarises the findings of a research and analysis study of the latest examples of human interactions with services mediated by Artificial Intelligence. The report forms the foundation of a commercial research project being carried out by the Royal College of Art for Fujitsu Design Limited which aims to explore the potential of creating more emotionally engaging interactions with retail and banking services.

Our interactions with services have evolved significantly in recent years, especially those now mainly facilitated by digital technology. We’ve moved from being able to access services online at any time to also being able to access them anywhere. This has also evolved from relatively simple, information providing interfaces to bi-directional communication interfaces that enable more personalisation, a stronger emotional connection and manipulation.

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence potentially takes this progression further to create much more empathetic relationships between people and the services they require.
Currently, banks, retail and other services are using text based “ChatBots” as an additional interaction, however they offer very little emotional engagement or connection to the user’s context. A few examples are starting to emerge using voice based interactions and offering much more pro-active advice and one example reading users body language and tone of voice to determine how best to carry out the required task and achieve social goals.

This report is not yet available for public access.