Using AI to help people

AI-based recommender systems for sustainable behavior

Tailoring nudges for a sustainable life

Supporting people leading more sustainable lifestyles is becoming increasingly important, so the question becomes: how can we use the power of artificial intelligence to make sure we are influencing people exactly the way they need?

Nudging as a tool

As Therese Wernstedt explained in a previous post, nudging, the process of nudging someone towards a behaviour without restricting their freedom, can be a powerful tool in supporting people to live more sustainable lifestyles. Of course, not all nudges will affect everyone in the same way - pushing a vegan to eat more vegan food may not produce the desired results; similarly, asking someone who doesn't like walking or biking to walk or take the bike to work may not be very helpful. Different themes, nudge methods, tone and even timing can affect a person's response to a particular nudge. This is where we can use AI-based recommender systems to make sure that content is tailored to specific users.

 

Man looking at buying an item

Recommender systems in today's society

Recommender systems are ubiquitous in today's society, determining everything from what content people consume on social media platforms to what ads or special offers they are shown when shopping online. Various methods and technologies can be used to create such systems; Thompson sampling was proposed as early as the 1930s to address the so-called exploration-exploitation problem, but only found practical use in the early 00s. Today, the most powerful systems deployed by giants such as Google or Meta may instead use Reinforcement Learning models based on Deep Neural Networks that require staggering amounts of data, but simpler models can still produce powerful results, and with much more modest amounts of data.

Exploring algorithm

One way to personalise content is to segment users and nudges in a number of dimensions; for users, this could be things like age group, environmental activity, or vegetarianism. For nudges, it might be the tone, the subject matter, or the nudging technique used. Based on this, similarities and differences between different users and nudges can be calculated. The next step is for the algorithm to start exploring - if a user responds well to a nudge, then similar users are likely to respond well to similar nudges. Over time, as the algorithm learns the response of more users to more nudges, it will develop an idea of which users like which nudges.

A force for good

As digital technology advances, the potential for using these powerful technologies in combination with behavioral science techniques such as nudges will grow exponentially. While it's easy to get carried away with all the exploitative ways these technologies can be used for profit, it's important to remember that they can also be a force for good.

A man walking in a city with a stroller and a child

Is it possible to influence people to live more sustainably?

Read Therese Wernstedt previous article about how we can use nudging to influence people to live more sustainably

For more information, please contact:

Dick Max-Hansen - Digital Services; AI, BI, Data Analytics

Dick Max-Hansen

Digital Services; AI, BI, Data Analytics

Contact Dick Max-Hansen

For sales enquiries, please complete this form. For all other enquiries, please visit our office and contacts page here.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.