Världen blir alltmer digitaliserad och i med det, utvecklas nya metoder för att kunna underlätta arbetet för oss människor med automatiserade system som bland annatkontrolleras av AI (artificiell intelligens). Nya utmaningar står inför dörren för att fåsamhällen att anpassa sig till den nya framtiden. En av dessa metoder är chattbottar sommed hjälp av AI kan automatisera en stor del av det manuella arbetet.Denna uppsats bygger på ett projekt som vi blev tilldelade av CGI, att utvecklaen chattbot som en demoprodukt. Syftet med demoprodukten är att ge CGI möjlighetatt visa för kunder vad en chattbot är för något och vilka användningsområden den kanha. Chattbotten utvecklades med hjälp av ett open source-projekt som kallas för Rasasom är ett ramverk för att utveckla chattbottar med. Resultatet är en demoprodukt i formav en chattbot som kan boka semester och möten samt hjälpa användare att få ett nyttlösenord om de har glömt sitt och svara på vanliga frågor. / The world becomes more and more digital and with that, new methods are being deve-loped to ease the work for us humans with automatic systems including those controlledby AI (Artificial Intelligence). New challenges are faced every day to make us moreaccustomed to the new future. One of the methods is chatbots and with the help of AIthey can be used to automate a big chunk of the manual labour.This dissertation is based on an assignment by CGI, to develop a chatbot as ademo. The purpose of the demo is for CGI to show to customers what a chatbot is andwhat use cases a chatbot can have. The development of the chatbot used an open sourceproject called Rasa which is a framework to create chatbots with. The result is a demo inthe shape of a chatbot that can book vacations and meetings as well as help users receivea new password if they forgot theirs and answer frequently asked questions (FAQ).

Problematization: Earlier research on brand communication emphasize the importance of communicating a brand consistently throughout all marketing channels and media. Virtual assistants (VAs) are a new marketing media and a relatively new technology with which a brand can communicate with customers. However, the theory and knowledge about how to use it as a communication tool for a brand is limited. With human communication attributes being a unique characteristic of VAs as a marketing medium, it is suggested that these can be used to clarify and supplement the traits of a brand’s personality. Research Questions: How is brand personality communicated via integrated marketing communications? How does communication with VAs affect the consumers’ perception of a brand’s personality? Purpose: This report investigates, through theories on integrated marketing communication, brand and communication, how brand personality can be communicated through a voice. The study also shows how human conversation attributes are of importance in conversation with virtual assistants, and how these affect brand personality. Conclusion: The study has shown that virtual assistants could provide the opportunity to augment a brand’s personality as a result of their ability to adopt human communication attributes. If the conversational expectations are not fulfilled, the impression of the VA, and therefore the brand it represents, will be negatively affected. If VAs overcome the communication and social obstacles, of which some are presented in this study, they can become a valuable medium for communicating brand personality. Knowledge Contribution: This study has given an understanding for human-to-brand conversation through voice and what aspects that may be considered when developing a VA for marketing purposes. A theoretical model has been developed to show how brand personality and communication attributes can affect the brand communication through virtual assistants.

The usage of artificial intelligence in banking is an important theme within entrepreneurial research. The purpose of the study was to analyse the motivations, challenges and opportunities for Swedish banking institutes to implement artificial intelligence based solutions into their customer service process. The research is based on a case study of the Swedish banking institute Swedbank AB, who introduced an AI based virtual assistant (Nina) to deal with customer requests. For the qualitative study, interviews with Swedish banking customer and experts were conducted. Further, to understand the managerial motivations of Swedbank, a theory of Moore (2008) regarding innovation management was applied. The findings display that Nina improved the service spectrum of Swedbank with the potential of decreasing costs, while maintaining customer satisfaction. Further, the results displayed a high acceptance of new technologies from the customer perspective. This provides the foundation for Swedbank to introduce further artificial intelligence based services. Banking institutes and other service oriented organisations with high customer interaction can use the implications of the thesis when considering to more effectively handle customer requests.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing and is poised to transform healthcare. This thesis explores the current and future role of AI in medicine, radiology, and mammography, as well as the bioethical considerations surrounding its use. The introduction provides an overview of AI and its applications in medicine, followed by a discussion of how AI is being used in clinical care including its potential for improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. The thesis then delves into AI in radiology, specifically its use in image interpretation, diagnosis, triaging, and treatment planning. The role of AI in mammography is also explored, focusing on its potential for improving the accuracy of breast cancer detection and diagnosis, as well as the aspect of patient communication and education. The future of AI in healthcare is also discussed including potential challenges such as the need for high quality unbiased data and the ethical considerations surrounding AI’s use. The bioethical considerations surrounding AI in healthcare are explored including issues related to privacy, autonomy, and bias. Finally, the thesis concludes with a discussion of what can be expected from the future of AI in medicine and the implications for healthcare professionals, patients, and society. In summary, this thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the current and future role of AI in medicine, radiology, mammography, and patient care while highlighting the importance of addressing bioethical considerations as this technology continues to evolve and make its way into our lives. / Urban Bioethics

This paper investigates the conversational capabilities of voice-controlled virtual assistants with respect to biased questions and answers. Three commercial virtual assistants (Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri) are tested for the presence of three cognitive biases (wording, framing and confirmation) in the answers given. The results show that all assistants are susceptible to wording and framing biases to varying degrees, and have limited ability to recognise questions designed to induce cognitive biases. The paper describes the different response strategies available to voice user interfaces, the differences between them, and discusses the role of strategy in relation to biased content.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / This article is about the problem and development of a fashion virtual assistant proposed by using a Kinect v2 camera and image processing, for fashion retail stores. It comes up mainly as a response to the inability of providing unique experiences during the shopping process through the use of diverse devices. Because of this, similar virtual assistant solutions, oriented to provide clothing recommendations, were analyzed to be able to provide software that could give a more personalized suggestion for the users based on their physical characteristics. / Revisión por pares

The usage of virtual assistants is starting to appear within a wide range of application areas. This thesis has been conducted in collaboration with Volvo Cars and more specifically the CAD & Mechanical Development department. It examines how a virtual assistant could facilitate daily product design work at Volvo Cars. This is done by creating a deep understanding of how Design Engineers currently use Volvo Cars CAD Methods or VM’s. The Volvo Cars CAD Methods are instructional documents where Design Engineers find guidance when encountering design related problems. This thesis focuses primarily on the mechanical design aspects of Volvo Cars CAD Methods. The final prototype presented in the thesis is a result of interviews, affinity diagram analysis, requirement analysis, survey, and design iterations. This thesis and the final prototype have shown the interaction design possibilities, limitations, use-cases, and future potential of a virtual assistant Volvo Cars.

Contributors from the mid 20th century up to now have developed and refined virtual assistants, taking the technology from a set of rules to assistants driven by Artificial Intelligence. Today, virtual assistants can provide value in organisation and support a sustainable society by conducting basic and repetitive tasks, and help reduce inequalities caused by biased advisors on sensitive topics. Despite its prosperity, current research somewhat lack focus on the evaluation of virtual assistants in industrial applications. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate virtual assistants from a technical, economical and organisational perspective, in order to understand their performance and value in an industrial environment. This has been done in collaboration with IBM and a client company which prefers to remain anonymous in this report. In this company, two IBM Watson Assistants are under development; one for the IT Service Desk, and one for the Ethics & Compliance department. To cover all aspects of the virtual assistants’ performance, quantitative and qualitative methods were used by conducting user testings and surveys. In this process, discussions have been conducted with IBM experts and employees of the firm for which the practical implementation has been studied, to gain a general and specific understanding from different perspectives. From this paper, the following can be concluded. First, technological performance can be described using quantitative metrics such as coverage, confidence, precision and helpfulness, and should be complemented using qualitative measures such as user satisfaction and perceived user understanding. Second, specific technological performance is relative and the technical limitations as well as it’s maturity should be used as a complement to the evaluation of the assistants. Third, identified organisational benefits include: • reduced time-to-resolution, • reduced handling time, • all-hour-support, • scalability and • user understanding Conclusions specific for the use cases show that an assistant implemented in a narrower use case, that is the Ethics & Compliance assistant, easier can be implemented and performs relatively well also in less developed environments. A broader use case, such as the IT assistant, requires more effort to perform at a high level but may be even more beneficial than in the narrow use case once sufficiently refined. / Från mitten av 1900-talet har virtuella assistenter utvecklats och förfinats där teknologin gått från en mängd regler till assistenter drivna av artificiell intelligens. Idag kan virtuella assistenter tillföra värde till organisationer och bidra till ett hållbart samhälle bland annat genom att utföra enkla och återkommande uppgifter samt minska ojämlikheter orsakad av partiska rådgivare i känsliga frågor. Trots framgången har nuvarande forskning inte fokuserat på evalueringen av virtuella assistenter i industriella sammanhang. Syftet med denna rapport är att utvärdera virtuella assistenter från ett tekniskt, ekonomiskt och organisationellt perspektiv för att förstå dess prestation i industriella miljöer. Arbetet har genomförts i samarbete med IBM och en av deras kunder som föredrar att förbli anonyma. I detta företag är två IBM Watson Assistant under utveckling; en för deras IT Service Desk och en för deras avdelning för Ethics & Compliance. I studien har både kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder använts, däribland användartestning och frågeformulär, för att inkludera alla aspekter av de virtuella assistenternas prestation. I denna process har diskussioner förts med experter inom IBM samt medarbetare på företaget för vilket den praktiska implementationen studerats för att få en förståelse för både generell och specifik kunskap ur olika perspektiv. I denna rapport kan följande slutsatser dras. Ett, den tekniska prestationen kan bestämmas med kvantitativa mätetal så som täckning (coverage), säkerhet (confidence), precision och hjälpsamhet (helpfulness), och kompletteras med kvalitativa mätetal som användarnöjdhet och upplevd förståelse för användaren. Två, specifik teknisk prestation är relativ och de tekniska  begränsningarna samt mognad bör användas som komplement till utvärderingen av assistenterna. Tre, identifierade organisationsfördelar inkluderar: • reducerad time-to-resolution, • reducerad hanteringstid, • support ¨öppen dygnet runt, • skalbarhet, och • användarförståelse Slutsatserna i de specifika fallen visar att en virtuell assistent som implementeras inom ett smalare område, som en assistent för Ethics & compliance, enklare kan implementeras samt presterar relativt bra även i en mindre utvecklad miljö. Bredare områden, som en assistent för IT-support, kräver mer arbete för att prestera på en hög nivå men kan vara ännu mer värdefull än assistenten i det smala området när den blivit tillräckligt utvecklad.

The IoT-embedded smart homes have a high level of home automation and could change many aspects of the residents' daily lives, such as control, convenience, comfort, and energy-saving. The rise of voice-based virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Google assistants in the past five years has brought new potentials to provide occupants with a convenient and intuitive interface to interact with smart homes through conversations. However, the one-way communications in the form of user commands to control building systems does not result in the optimal course of actions. As such, in this thesis, we proposed the concept of proactive smart home assistants and explored the occupants' perception towards smart home assistants proactively providing suggestions to adapt them into energy-saving behaviors. We also investigated the impact of occupants' personal features on their intention in taking energy-saving behaviors. A comprehensive data collection was conducted through online surveys, in which 307 valid responses with participant's personal profile information, their perceptions of smart home assistants, and their feedback to our designed messages were collected. The first manuscript compared participants' responses to traditional plain-text energy-saving suggestions and suggestions provided by smart home assistants. The nudging effect of smart home assistants was justified to be significant in affecting occupant's energy-saving behaviors. Occupant's thermal comfort range, smart home device previous experience, values and beliefs were then proved to have significant impact on their intention in taking the smart home assistant's suggestions. The second manuscript fitted 21 personal characteristics features in machine learning models (SVM, Random Forest, Logistic Regression) to predict occupant's intention and attitude towards energy-saving suggestions. The results indicated that occupant's beliefs about interests in taking actions and beliefs about energy expenses, occupant's education level, residence occupancy type, thermal comfort ranges, and smart home device experiences are important features in occupants' energy-saving behavior intention prediction. This research demonstrates the effect of proactive smart home assistants in human-building interaction as well as the impact of personal characteristic features on occupant's energy-saving behaviors, paving a path to the future development of bi-directional human-building communication. / Master of Science / With the technology development in the fields of the Internet of Things (IoT), smart homes have made it possible to help occupants conserve energy in an efficient way without sacrificing the occupants' comfort. The rise of voice-based virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Google assistants accompany the proliferation of smart speaker products in the past five years has brought new potentials to provide occupants with a convenient and intuitive interface to interact with smart homes through conversations. Based on IoT, the virtual assistants are able to control a broad range of Wi-Fi connected home devices like thermostats, lighting systems, and security systems. As such, through the simple wake words (e.g., "Alexa", "Hey, Google"), occupants can easily control the home environment with their voice commands. Despite the potentials brought by these voice-based virtual assistants, it has been shown that users might not know about all the supported features and limit their interaction with smart home assistants to simple daily tasks. The one-way communications in the form of user commands to control building systems do not result in the optimal course of actions. Therefore, in this study, we have envisioned that these virtual assistants, coupled with their corresponding smart home ecosystems could act proactively as a bridge to facilitate human-building interaction and achieve goals like nudging occupants to adopt sustainable and healthy behaviors. A comprehensive data collection was conducted through online surveys, in which 307 valid responses with participant's personal profile information, their perceptions of smart home assistants, and their feedback to our designed messages were collected. The first manuscript compared participants' responses to traditional plain-text energy-saving suggestions and suggestions provided by smart home assistants. The nudging effect of smart home assistants was justified to be significant in affecting occupant's energy-saving behaviors. Occupant's thermal comfort range, smart home device previous experience, values and beliefs were then proved to have significant impact on their intention in taking the smart home assistant's suggestions. The second manuscript fitted 21 personal characteristics features in machine learning models (SVM, Random Forest, Logistic Regression) to predict occupant's intention and attitude towards energy-saving suggestions. The results indicated that occupant's beliefs about interests in taking actions and beliefs about energy expenses, occupant's education level, residence occupancy type, thermal comfort ranges, and smart home device experiences are important features in occupants' energy-saving behavior intention prediction. This research demonstrates the effect of proactive smart home assistants in human-building interaction as well as the impact of personal characteristic features on occupant's energy-saving behaviors, paving a path to the future development of bi-directional human-building communication.

Este artículo trata sobre la problemática y el desarrollo de un asistente virtual de moda propuesto mediante el uso de una cámara Kinect v2 y procesamiento de imágenes, para tiendas minoristas de moda. Surge principalmente como una respuesta a la incapacidad de proporcionar experiencias únicas durante el proceso de compra mediante el uso de diversos dispositivos. Debido a esto, se analizaron soluciones de asistente virtual similares orientadas a proporcionar recomendaciones de vestimenta para poder proporcionar un software que podría dar una sugerencia más personalizada para los usuarios basándose en sus características físicas. La validación del modelo se realizará a través de la experiencia de un grupo de usuarios en el momento del uso del asistente virtual y expertos en el área de evaluación de moda. / This article is about the problematic and development of a fashion virtual assistant proposed by using a Kinect v2 camera and image processing, for fashion retail stores. It comes up mainly as a response to the inability of providing unique experiences during the shopping process through the use of diverse devices. Because of this, similar virtual assistant solutions oriented to provide clothing recommendations were analysed to be able to provide a software that could give a more personalized suggestion for the users basing in their physical characteristics. The model validation will be done through the experience of a group of users at the moment of use of the virtual assistant and experts in the fashion assessment area. / Trabajo de investigación