Is there a Place for AI in the Healthcare Consumer Experience?

The Innovators, Walter Isaacson’s follow-up to his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, is a history of the development of computers and the internet, and the creative minds behind them. The book closes with a chapter about artificial intelligence (AI) and a discussion of whether it will ever be equal to human intelligence.

Julia Stead, vice president of marketing at Invoca

In the end, Isaacson suggests that humans and machines working together vs. competing against each other may have the greatest potential to solve problems: “The goal could be … to forge a partnership in which we let the machines do what they do best, and they let us do what we do best.”

Julia Stead, vice president of marketing at Invoca, and Adam Justis, director of product marketing at Adobe, recently shared results of two separate surveys around EQ (emotional intelligence), consumer experience, and AI.

How ready are consumers to embrace AI vs. human interactions? Can AI provide the level of personalization that consumers have grown to expect? Can it simulate EQ? Or as Isaacson proposes, is the best solution one that leverages both human and machine capabilities to enhance the customer experience?

Invoca surveyed 1,000 consumers to understand their feelings about complex purchases in six industries including healthcare. How important is EQ in these types of transactions? The survey broke it down, asking consumers to indicate if seven different attributes of EQ were “important” or “very important” in their interactions with brands:

• Problem-solving – 90 percent
• Support – 89 percent
• Efficiency – 88 percent
• Adaptability – 87 percent
• Even temper – 84 percent
• Empathy – 77 percent
• Personalization – 75 percent

Consumer value of these characteristics is in sharp contrast to their perceptions of how businesses are actually doing. Healthcare is lowest in ‘efficiency,’ and highest in the categories ‘even temper’ and ‘empathy.’

Learn more: Is Healthcare Ready for AI-Enabled EQ?

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President