Can Artificial Intelligence be Emotionally Intelligent?

Emotional intelligence (also known as emotional quotient, EQ) is a person's ability to understand and manage emotions to build relationships, solve conflicts, and manage stress. Some Artificial intelligence (AI) practitioners are trying to make AI systems more human-like by incorporating EQ into conversational AI chatbots, virtual assistants, and other functions like customer service and sales.

Multimodal sentiment analysis uses AI to identify someone's emotional state based on factors like facial expression, posture, tone, and speech. It combines data from images and sound with text-based analysis to provide deeper insights into the user's emotions.

In a recent study, researchers used a dataset that included facial expressions, posture detection, voice color sensors, and speech recognition input. They found that biological information was more effective than voice and facial recognition.

This research suggests that focusing on human physiological signals may be the key to creating AI systems with high emotional intelligence. In the future, AI could help monitor mental health by detecting changes in emotional states.

Can AI teach us how to become more emotionally intelligent?

AI has applications beyond sales and customer success, as it can benefit many professional roles that require strong communication skills such as leadership, public speaking, product management, virtual therapy, teaching, language learning, and bedside manners.

By using AI to measure emotional intelligence, even professionals can enhance their communication skills, understand their audience's emotional state, and provide better customer service or care. AI can take complex data and find patterns that can help professionals communicate more effectively, improving overall performance and customer satisfaction. According to MarketsandMarkets, by 2026, the combined market size for emotion detection and conversational AI is projected to grow to more than $55 billion.

Emotion AI explained

Why it matters

As artificial intelligence learns to interpret and respond to human emotion, senior leaders should consider how it could change their industries and play a critical role in their offices (MIT Sloan.)

Emotion AI technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated, allowing machines to recognize and analyze human emotions through various channels, such as facial expressions, vocal tone, and body language. By understanding emotions, machines can provide more personalized experiences, improve customer service, and even detect and treat mental health conditions.

In short, emotion AI is an exciting and rapidly advancing field that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with technology and each other.

The field of emotional AI is traced back to 1995 when Rosalind Picard, a professor at the MIT MediaLab, published "Affective Computing." Today, researchers like Javier Hernandez, who works with the Affective Computing Group at the MIT Media Lab, view emotion AI as a tool that enables more natural and intuitive interactions between humans and machines.

Emotion AI is designed to recognize and analyze human emotions, allowing machines to respond to people's emotional states in a more human-like way. “Think of the way you interact with other human beings; you look at their faces, you look at their body, and you change your interaction accordingly,” Hernandez said. “How can [a machine] effectively communicate information if it doesn’t know your emotional state, if it doesn’t know how you’re feeling, it doesn’t know how you’re going to respond to specific content?”

The paradigm is not human versus machine.

— it's really machine augmenting human.

Ranael Kaliouby PhD, 2006

Another ability is to analyze images and detect subtle changes in facial expressions that humans may miss, even if they happen too quickly to be consciously recognized. Similarly, Konect.ai built an automotive AI system trained to notice and recognize when customer text messages are indicating correlated annoyance or anger.

Industries are already using emotional AI

Call Centers - Cogito's technology helps call center agents to identify the moods of customers on the phone and adjust their approach in real-time. Their voice analytics software is based on years of human behavior research, which has helped to identify specific voice patterns associated with different moods and emotional states. MIT Media Lab researchers predict varying degrees of depression using phone data and a wearable device. By analyzing a person's speech patterns, movement, and other behavioral data, the algorithm can identify signs of depression and alert healthcare professionals. This technology has the potential to revolutionize mental health.

Automotive – Konect.ai automotive SMS platform also uses AI with sentiment analysis to better predict and automatically respond to a range of customer responses. The conversational analysis also generates a report of which responses were positive, and which were negative to allow dealership and automotive groups the opportunity to revolutionize their communication strategies. This continuous attention gets customers more accurate answers, without the hassle and miscommunication.

Javier Hernandez and Affective Computing Group are also developing emotional AI for use in vehicles to improve safety, reduce accidents, and enhance the driving experience for everyone on the road. The goal is to improve safety by monitoring the emotional state of drivers and passengers and adjusting the car's behavior accordingly. For example, technology could detect if a driver is arguing with a passenger and adjust the speed of the car to help the driver focus. Emotion AI could also detect if a driver is distracted or sleepy and gently guides the car back into the center of the lane.

“What I tell companies is think about what aspects of emotional intelligence should play a critical role in your business,” Hernandez said. He sees potential in AI uses in call center technology to ensure and understand the well-being of employees. And at the moment, according to an AI experience study presented by CDK Global, dealerships are adopting AI to help support and upskill staff for a more valuable work environment.

With the proper techniques, AI can provide professionals with valuable emotional support, ensuring their well-being in the face of daily challenges. Additionally, AI has the potential to enhance our safety in various aspects of life. However, it is crucial to emphasize that the success of emotion AI technology relies on responsible programming and ethical management. Opt-in and consent mechanisms, along with user control over emotional data, are vital to ensure the ethical and responsible use of emotion AI technology. By prioritizing ethics and user empowerment, we can harness the transformative potential of emotion AI while safeguarding individual rights and privacy.

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Sources:

Sommers, Meredith. "Emotion AI, Explained." MIT. 2023, https://doi.org/https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/emotion-ai-explained. Accessed 15 Jun. 2023.

Mehra, Mr. Aashish  "Conversational AI Market Worth $29.8 Billion by 2028." MarketsandMarkets, 2023, https://doi.org/https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/conversational-ai.asp#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20research%20report%20%22%20Conversational%20AI,grow%20at%20a%20CAGR%20of%2021.8%25%20during%202021%E2%80%932026. Accessed 15 Jun. 2023.

Bryan Plaster, Daniel Limon. "Can AI Teach Us How to Become More Emotionally Intelligent? 2023, https://doi.org/https://hbr.org/2022/01/can-ai-teach-us-how-to-become-more-emotionally-intelligent. Accessed 15 Jun. 2023.

Rosso, Cami. "Can AI Be Emotionally Intelligent?" Psychology Today, 2023, https://doi.org/https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-future-brain/202204/can-ai-be-emotionally-intelligent. Accessed 15 Jun. 2023.