It may seem strange, but the online world has become our only safe space due to COVID-19. Everyone has probably noticed how artificial intelligence technology has come into our lives: search engines, customer service, home management, health apps, etc. We do things and get emotions, but our mood can often dramatically change if we are not understood or left unanswered. Emotions are an indispensable aspect of our lives. We want to see a world where we are accepted and not left behind.

Each of us is bound by social distance.

Each of us is bound by social distance. That distances do not become an abyss for us, and forced social isolation does not become loneliness. On the contrary, we gradually discover the world of artificial technology and apply its parts to our daily lives. Live communication is undoubtedly essential. Human emotions must be heard and not rejected, especially when the world is unstable.

What are emotional artificial intelligence and its significance?

When our team was developing our AI technology at Evolwe, we were conducting JTBD research and communicating with users to identify whether they trust AI or not. Eventually, we discovered that a “robot” is a machine that doesn’t know how to empathize and repels people with its disregard and disinterest.

It illustrates the difference between emotional AI and classic AI technologies. Emotional intelligence is a disruptive technology that helps eliminate many stigmas and move beyond established patterns. This technology feels human emotions and, more importantly, recognizes feelings in a timely manner and empathizes in a human way.

Perhaps, emotional AI remains “artificial” to users, and there are at least two reasons to think otherwise.

• First, emotional AI is a field that has a continuous learning process. Also, each of us has a different level of emotional intelligence. Does anyone think about self-development and mastering professional skills?
• Second, the ability to empathize is not the same as recognizing and understanding human feelings. Emotional intelligence is meaningful to people since they begin to work on their awareness at a subconscious level. A key to our hearts is understanding ourselves, our emotions, as well as others’ feelings.

Also, as a part of our JTBD interview series, we have discovered that what is commonly considered a disadvantage of emotional AI is, on the contrary, an advantage. Emotional artificial intelligence has no biases or stigmas. The “robot” recognizes other people’s feelings but does not experience them, and the last is what exactly helps not to come to an internal conflict. Emotional AI cannot respond with anger to anger, aggression to aggression, boorishness to boorishness. Provocation is a thing of the past in this scenario. The value is tolerance that comes to people in dialogue and lets them become even more tolerant.

Principles of Emotional AI Technologies and Prospects of Development

The Encyclopedia of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology states that emotional AI is a complex technology comprising a computer and cognitive sciences, psychology and neurobiology, sociology, and linguistics. And because of this, emotional artificial intelligence is developing.

Together, the approaches and technological tools expand the range of human emotion recognition capabilities that are read by video, audio, and other biometric sensors. Machine learning algorithms then process the data, and the tone, emotionality, and type of response are determined.

Emotional artificial intelligence systems are also different in purpose.

If we talk about the automotive industry, we can see that there are already devices that can control the temperature of the air in the cabin, lay out the most optimal route, and even include the driver’s favorite music. In the future, technologies of emotional artificial intelligence will be able to determine the driver’s emotional state, stress level, or a sharp deterioration in health indicators.

If you’ve ever contacted a call center, your frustration level has probably grown each time you’ve been connected to a new operator and told the same story. But thanks to emotional artificial intelligence technology, it is now possible to determine the mood of the caller and, accordingly, operators can adjust how the call is handled in real-time.

Our algorithm developed at Evolwe is trained to perform completely different functions than a product from the automotive industry or customer support.

If you think about the future of emotional artificial intelligence, you can see that it is not only the future but also the present.

Are we ready for it?

Of course, we are. Sometimes we accept these technologies as great service, the latest technology, some kind of progress, but if you think about it, what we admire at the same time is what we so insistently do not accept — artificial intelligence. Perhaps this is simply a human fear, and we are afraid to raise the bar for humanity to another level. But it is worth remembering that all fears must and can be worked on. And then, we will come to the point where emotional AI technology will not just take its place in our world but will help make it much more aware. Emotionally aware.

Applications for Emotional AI in life

Can Emotional AI technology take the place of the professional psychologist or not?

There is no definite answer to this question. But it is worth noting that emotional AI technology definitely can become a great helper for psychologists, coaches, and ordinary people interested in self-reflection, self-discovery, and improving their emotional intelligence.

At Evolwe, we want to focus on a person’s moods, desires, and degree of satisfaction with life in general. This topic is very fragile and requires sensitivity, including the need to pay special attention to the presentation of information and all recommendations and advice. The more information there is about a person in different areas, the more you can put together the big picture.

Personal assistants with the benefit of artificial intelligence are far from being a novelty. But not all of the possibilities have been revealed. For example, the chances of identifying a burnout state and what to do to prevent it, support of the emotional state in moments of crisis, improving the skills of interaction with people, finding one’s destiny, and unlocking one’s potential are not disclosed. Often a person doesn’t even notice many things. At the same time, emotional artificial intelligence can detect them at the right time and form a personal plan. People can look at themselves from the outside and determine what prevents them from further development.

In medical practice, at the moment, you can see the use of emotional artificial intelligence. In studying this issue, we found that AI technology is already being used to work with patients with signs of dementia. But the ambitious plan is that it will become possible to determine psychological diseases and abnormalities without any errors based on a person’s emotional state.

The automotive, customer service, recruitment, and HR departments have used AI technologies for a long time.

The development of emotional AI also can improve road safety by monitoring the driver’s psychological state. In this way, AI can bring the driver into a state of equilibrium at the right moment and in a natural way: automatic control of air temperature, music selection, speed recommendations, and even the recommended driving time at the wheel. Moreover, many of these objects affect human irritability and stress, reducing anger and aggression, which naturally positively affects a people’s emotional state and helps improve quality of life.

Customer services also act similarly. When people encounter problems in their life path, their mood changes, and so does their attitude toward the world around them. Therefore, if a person identifies aggressive and unfriendly clients at once, they can avoid many mistakes. Firstly, as we discussed earlier, the AI doesn’t respond with aggression to aggression. Secondly, people can quickly and easily identify the problem’s complexity and direct the person to the necessary highly qualified specialist.

The benefits of emotional artificial intelligence can be discovered in recruiting and HR and as part of creating a productive work environment. It requires determining the stress level and assessing the ability to cope with complex or stressful tasks, which can often be unnoticed by anyone, especially at first, and then lead to total emotional burnout of the employee. This business component can be an advantage for start-ups and successful and large corporations.

What will the future hold?

Soon, emotional artificial intelligence technology will penetrate many areas of our lives. Of course, innovators always meet skeptics on their way, but success in the end always awaits innovators. Owing to it, you and I can enjoy daily light in the home, fast mobile Internet, and mobile communications almost anywhere on the planet. Although it’s not so long ago that people thought this was science fiction.

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If we begin to speculate about the future, we often have an image of something distant and hypothetical in our minds. But it is worth noting that the future starts today. In turn, emotional artificial intelligence is designed to make our future happier, more conscious, and more prosperous. As a result, we can become more emotionally aware, get to know ourselves from different sides, and build a world where our children will be happy!