This photo provided by KT Corp. shows a senior citizen using the company’s AI speaker.
GWANGJU, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Wednesday that the positive effects of a welfare service using artificial intelligence (AI) technology had been proved for the first time in the country.
A research team from Chonnam National University conducted a complete enumeration survey of 212 people using KT AI speakers in the southwestern city of Gwangju.
Among the respondents, 80 percent said that the AI speaker helped and maintained their health, while 63.5 percent said it helped reduce feelings of depression, and 65.9 percent said that it helped reduce feelings of loneliness.
Another 72.6 percent said that it contributed to reducing feelings of anxiety.
About half of users said that the AI speaker helped address their emotional difficulties, while 45.9 percent said that after using the service, the number of friends they could talk to about their problems increased.
The research team suggested that KT’s AI care service contributed to invigorating the communication of users and addressing their difficulties in everyday life, while enhancing their level of social support.
The usage frequency for emergency notification, one of the AI speaker’s main functions, remained low, but most users were aware of the function.
The number of emergency notifications used during the survey period averaged 1.9 cases per month. The number of actual emergency rescue cases, including respiratory difficulty and chest pain, stood at eight.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
