Co‐Creating an AI Virtual Assistant Prototype with People Living with Dementia

Joi is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Virtual Assistant prototype to improve emotional well-being for people living-in-place with dementia. The Virtual Assistant creates personalized joy pops for the person with dementia within a smart-home living environment. The joy pops by the VA are triggered based on input from sensors in the smart home, including motion, sound, temperature, and light. The prototype is designed and personalized for the person to provide a moderately stimulating environment to reduce agitation, apathy, and anxiety.Based on reminiscence therapy intervention and a smart home environment, the prototype was co-created with input from people living with dementia and their care partners. A literature review on stress-related risk reduction strategies between people with dementia and their care partners was completed for input into the system philosophy. Surveys were used to gather the information from people living with dementia and their care partners, including the current and future state of the home environment and an assessment of meaningful objects.A personalized memory box was developed for each individual to house meaningful objects, such as photos, music, or other items deemed meaningful by the participants in the survey. In addition, the prototype was integrated into a smart home environment to show how smart technologies can be used for conversation prompts with AI versus a name prompt to initiate the AI instance.The prototype can be used for continued development and testing to explore possibilities for living-in-place with dementia. This type of co-creation encourages dementia citizenship and well-being as well as values user input for prototyping from a vulnerable population.