Powered by Artificial Intelligence: A Youth Centered and Digitally Driven solution to increase access to on-demand sexual and reproductive health information and contraceptive uptake in youth in Latin America

Summary

In a region where sexual education is limited due to societal stigma, PSI Affiliate Pan American Social Marketing Organization (PASMO) is leveraging online channels and artificial intelligence to support its efforts in reducing teen pregnancy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean by providing an innovative and data-driven digital approach to increase access to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) information and services for youth 15-24 through the Youth 3.0 program. Supported by multiple data sources, the program has identified the best way to engage young people with SBCC for SRH: by making it fun. Within the first year, the programs digitally-driven youth-centered approach to SRH information provision resulted in 32 million unique views or impressions of its online communications campaign and 11,061 online behavior change interventions in youth ages 15-24. The high demand generated, combined with real-time insights into youths desire to obtain 24/7 information and immediate response, led to the need of developing an automated solution that could increase impact through an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbot. In September 2019, PASMO launched Ubi: a Chatbot capable of providing online contraceptive counseling and reducing barriers to uptake by providing personalized, confidential and medically accurate information and referrals to low-cost products and services in a fun, engaging, and easily accessible way.

Background/Objectives

PASMO was challenged to bridge the gap between unmet contraceptive needs and information delivery to increase scale and contraceptive uptake in youth. Capitalizing on technology innovation to reach youth and an in-depth database of youth-driven insights collected from a Human-Centered Design (HCD) inspired study of Online Youth Behaviors and Youth Archetypes, Digital Satisfaction Surveys, and Social Listening, PASMO pioneered the creation of the first contraceptive counseling Chatbot in Latin America with youth at the center of its design.

Results/Lessons Learned

Capitalizing on technology innovation to reach youth and developing a solution has the potential to bridge the gap between unmet needs and information delivery. Youth desire a personalized, immediate, trustworthy solution, and demand is high. In one hour, over 10,000 users attempted to connect to the Bot, resulting in a crashed server. Due to the popularity of communications to promote the Bot, return on investment for advertising was highest than any other program in the organization. Youth centric design supported a 90% user satisfaction rate, with 100% of satisfied users indicating they would recommend it to friends.

Discussion/Implications For The Field

The difficulty in obtaining accurate personal information to measure impact is a challenge to address: youth prefer anonymity in taboo topics. Rethinking acceptability of unique online IDs like Facebook could help. Lessons on self-referral following exposure to personalized information will potentially provide a useful proxy and channel for consumer powered healthcare. Some functionality is pending for the Bot to help convert and track the evolution of information provision to behavior change, i.e. discount coupons to pharmacies for condoms and emergency contraception. Overall, results point to youth-driven digital solutions being capable of evolving the SBCC field into the future.

Abstract submitted by:

Andrea Novella - PSI

Martin Dale - PSI