Social Robot Counsellors - Jackie Andrade, Uni. Plymouth

Voice Tech Podcast: Master AI for B2B Audio Content Marketing in 2025 - A podcast by Carl Robinson

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Today on the show we welcome Jackie Andrade, Professor of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, and Leonie Cooper, a Ph.D. candidate at the university who is researching robot-delivered intervention to reduce procrastination. In this episode, we talk about how people communicate with robots, the role that robots can play in healthcare, and how robots can change human behaviour and influence us to take the right actions. 

We begin this discussion by taking a broad look at the psychological support that can be delivered through humans, and how that can be delivered through technology. We then dive into the motivational interviewing concept – a counselling method that helps people resolve thoughts, feelings, and insecurities to help them find the internal motivation they need to change their behaviour. We then take a look at Jackie and Leonie’s study, which involves an adorable-looking NAO Robot. We head into all the details around their paper which looks at how motivational interviewing using a NAO Robot was received by patients. 

One of the most fascinating parts of this conversation is learning more about the technological design decisions made for voice, movement, expression, and interaction of the NAO Robot and why Jackie and Leonie specifically decided against using speech detection. We also unpack the debate about whether social robots will ever replace human therapists, as well as the surprising benefits and the challenges that come with talking to robots as opposed to humans. By the end of this episode, you’ll have a better understanding as to why we need social robot counsellors in the first place, leaving you with the question: How does this make you feel?


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