AI-Driven Virtual Coach

Nikita Lukianets, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Pocket Confidant AI-based in Ukraine participate in Risk Roundup to discuss AI-Driven Virtual Coach.

AI-Driven Virtual Coach

Emerging technologies are fundamentally transforming the human ecosystem. The ongoing challenges and changes of the technology transformation are so profound that, from the perspective of the need for human skills, learning and growth, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril.

As a result, to fill the enormous skilled resource gaps, the need for technology-driven coaching and communication is becoming essential. Since the communication between man and machine is evolving rapidly, there are reliable indicators that, in the coming years, Artificial Intelligence will move past the technical hurdles and play a meaningful role in human progress and development and take up more critical roles.

This is primarily due to advances in conversational AI that will undoubtedly have huge implications in the way we do coaching, training, and communication in the coming years. The reality is that the emerging AI-powered conversational interface is on its way to completely redefine in how coaching is done.

Trends in Virtual Coaching

Technology that can understand human intent and can hold a human-like conversation has improved dramatically over the years.  As a result, it seems that any single interface with digital devices can either be replaced or augmented with AI-enabled conversational interfaces. Amidst a culture driven by automation, perhaps AI is on its way to becoming the new User Interface. It will be interesting to evaluate how it changes the nature of the human CAGS ecosystem.

As seen, conversational AI platforms are seemingly used to build applications that answer questions, provide advice and recommendations using natural language processing and other dialog-related technologies. Coaching with an AI-driven virtual coach is being experimented with and applied. Also, motivational and inspirational applications using conversational AI are on their way. Besides, developing social skills with AI, building confidence will also soon be possible using Virtual Coach, if not already. Moreover, being able to live a healthy life with a virtual nutrition coach, overcome emotional challenges and life’s hurdles using psychotherapy coaching seems promising. Furthermore, climbing the corporate ladder with leadership coaching is not far away.

As technology improves, more AI-powered voice interfaces will likely surface. Along with the ability to understand more complex human speech, expressions, and needs, these virtual coaches will be able to ‘remember’ and make reference to previous conversations and transactions to bring more effective coaching sessions.

Since human language is incredibly complex, incredibly nuanced, and constantly evolving, it will be interesting to see how conversational AI will further develop fluency in all languages. Perhaps it is time for nations to start evaluating the disruption coming their way due to voice-based interfaces, understand and evaluate:

• What technology trends are defining the future of coaching?
• What is the future of AI-driven virtual coaches?
• How many AI coaches are in existence today? How effective are they?
• How is conversational AI being used today for a virtual coach? What is the state of conversational AI?
• Why is there a growing interest in conversational AI/AI-driven virtual coach?
• What is the status of the conversational AI platform for AI-driven virtual coach use?
• Will the rise of AI and conversational voice interface necessitate the development of new AI-capable hardware that can cope with the growing data demand?
• What is the future of an AI-driven Virtual Coach?
• Where are the voice-based AI-driven virtual coach solutions emerging?
• How do organizations decide if they want to pursue the AI-driven virtual coach project?
• Where is the AI-driven virtual coach technology headed, and how will it impact society?

Conversational AI brings nations the most significant advancement for human interaction with technology. The question is whether we will see other living species interacting with technology in the coming years. The time is now to understand and evaluate the risks and rewards of AI-Driven Virtual Coach.

For more, please watch the Risk Roundup Webcast or hear the Risk Roundup Podcast

About the Guest

Nikita Lukianets is a Founder and CTO at PocketConfidant AI that designs, develops, and deploys automatically generated coaching conversations to help people live and work better together. Before starting PocketConfidant, he received a highly competitive fellowship from the SIGNALIFE Ph.D. program in life sciences and worked on supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms for neuronal classification, bridging approaches in neurobiology and statistical learning. Nikita is also a founder and researcher at the Open Ethics initiative that fosters the inclusive dialogue between experts and citizens to design systems where humans and AI successfully work together.

Nikita Lukianets has more than ten years of experience in Human-Computer Interaction. During his professional career in the technology sector, he has partnered with multiple organizations to help them build human-centered interfaces. He has been an active contributor to French and Ukrainian User Experience communities, focusing on the topics of usability and Natural User Interfaces. While working in Microsoft at Developer and Platform Evangelism Division, Nikita was leading a startup support program helping young technology companies to develop their products for scale.

Nikita received an MBA in innovation management from Politecnico di Milano School of Management and an M.Sc. in Applied Physics from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

About PocketConfidant

A technology to ask yourself the right questions.  Built on research from the fields of positive psychology, psychology of learning, and linguistics to make personal growth, reflection, and change available to everyone, anywhere, and at any time.

PocketConfidant is making coaching conversations available from any coaching/training/learning program to democratize and scale universal coaching methods that help people shift mindset, change behavior, and develop leadership skills. PocketConfidant is disrupting and growing coaching through machine-to-human and machines-to-machine to augment software capabilities. Existing solutions keep coaching where it was before. PocketConfidant makes it ubiquitous by embedding it into sticky valuable processes and then in software. PocketConfidant’s goal is to help people shift their perspective when needed and develop their mindset for success in their work, projects, relationships, and in their life. The future is about self-adaptation and self-transformation, and technology has a role to play.

About the Host of Risk Roundup

Jayshree Pandya (née Bhatt), Ph.D., a leading expert at the intersection of science, technology, and security, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Risk Group LLC. She is also the host of highly influential Risk Roundup: Podcast/Webcast, a scientist, an expert in disruptive technologies, and a globally recognized Strategic Security thought leader and influencer.

Dr. Pandya has been involved in a wide range of research, spanning security of and from science and technology domains. Her work is currently focused on understanding how the converging technologies and its interconnectivity across cyberspace, aquaspace, geospace, and space (CAGS), as well as individuals and entities across nations: its government, industries, organizations, and academia (NGIOA), create survival, security, and sustainability risks. This research is pursued to provide strategic security solutions for the future of humanity.

Dr. Pandya’s passion for solving complex problems facing humanity using science and technology began during her childhood. She pursued her interests in her studies, and in the 1990s, while doing her doctorate, she developed a Hydrogen Production system using Halobacterium halobium. She also developed a desalination process and discovered anticancer drugs. The trends continue as she gets actively involved in developing numerous solutions to complex problems facing humanity.

Over the years, Dr. Pandya has made significant contributions to the fields of Microbiology, Biochemistry, Anti-Cancer Drugs, Bio-Energy, and more. Her work on the technology layers of cyberspace encompasses the needs of Cyber-Security and Global Security, including defining the inter-connectedness of the Human Ecosystem (an integrated CAGS security framework). Also, Dr. Pandya has proposed a need for Integrity Rating System of Algorithms (a theory for the integrity of news and online content), Algorithm Naming and Identification System (a framework to identify and track algorithm that brings security risks to the future of humanity), and most recently, the need for redefining the role of insurance to be the enforcer of risk management systems across NGIOA and ensuring a clear set of rules and model to manage the interconnected and interdependent security risks from the human CAGS ecosystem.  

From the National Science Foundation to organizations from across the United States, Europe, and Asia, Dr. Pandya is an invited speaker on emerging technologies, technology transformation, digital disruption, and strategic security risks. Her work has contributed to more than 100 publications in the areas of science and commerce and has garnered her many advisory position honors. She is the author of the book, The Global Age: NGIOA @ Risk. Her upcoming book on “The Geopolitics of Cyber-Security: Implications for the Future of Humanity” will be released in early 2020.  She writes about Artificial Intelligence on Forbes.

About Risk Roundup

Risk Roundup, a global initiative launched by Risk Group, is a security risk reporting for risks emerging from existing and emerging technologies, technology convergence, and transformation happening across cyberspace, aquaspace, geospace, and space. Risk Roundup is released in both audio (Podcast) and video (Webcast) format. It is available for subscription at (Risk Group Website, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher Radio, Android, and Risk Group Professional Social Media).

About Risk Group

Risk Group LLC is a leading strategic security risk research and reporting organization building a strategic security risk analytics platform.

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