On May 21st 2024 we held a Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) Working Group meeting.
Our first event of the year, ‘GenAI and SBC – A Snapshot of Available AI-Powered Technologies for the SBC Community’ was designed especially for SBC enthusiasts and professionals who are curious about merging cutting-edge generative AI (GenAI) within the various steps of designing social and behaviour change programmes.
We were excited to host a vibrant dialogue among practitioners who have started integrating GenAI into SBC. We heard a rich array of first-hand accounts, as our speakers shared GenAI tools that can readily be used for SBC, including design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Our discussion aimed to shed light on practical applications and the real-world impact of GenAI in our field.
Building the evidence and learning base
As part of our session, we facilitated a 30-minute conversation about what a research agenda could look like for GenAI in SBC. We explored the critical need for concrete examples and early-stage data that could guide our decisions and strategies moving forward.
Expert speakers
Our speakers included:
- Isabelle Amazon-Brown, Consultant – Design, chatbots & AI, The MERLTech Initiative/iMedia Associates, ‘GenAI and SBC – state of play’ (recorded presentation)
- Lukas Borkowski, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships, Viamo, showcasing Viamo’s voice-first GenAI for SBC approach
- Oluwaseun Nifemi, Data Scientist, Data Science Nigeria/Data Scientists Network, GenAI for SBC/C programming
If you haven’t already, find out more about joining the NLP Community of Practice convened by the MERL Tech Initiative! As well as gaining access to resources and events at the intersection of MERL and NLP, you can join a wide range of working groups covering everything from NLP in Africa to Social and Behaviour Change Communications.