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Inclusive AI Avatars for Preventive Health Dialogues in a Superdiverse Primary Care Context [PCC130]

Tuesday May 5, 2026 12:00 - 17:00 Poster Arena

Presenter: Ines Nikšić

Track: Poster session, Digitalisation & eHealth

Digital healthcare is becoming the daily norm, from booking visits to engaging in e-health services, with new initiatives being conceptualized continuously. While digitalisation may improve accessibility, reduce waiting times, and optimize care, it also risks deepening existing healthcare inequalities and reinforcing stereotypes if solutions are not designed with diversity and inclusion in mind. This is particularly important in a time of global superdiversity, where person-centred care requires meeting people where they are: personally, but also linguistically and culturally. Digital tools can help bridge these gaps, and the responsibility for overcoming language and cultural barriers cannot rest solely on individuals. This multidisciplinary project, grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) explores how generative AI avatars could support preventive health dialogues in Swedish primary care, through the overarching research question: In which situations might individuals prefer a conversation with an AI avatar rather than with a human healthcare professional, and why? Embedded in this are further questions about trust, multilingualism, intercultural communication, and what “person-centered” truly means in digital care. Focus is placed on user perspectives on communication and the multimodality of embodied conversational agents; how they speak, move, and gesture; and how these design choices can be made culturally sensitive, norm-aware, and linguistically accessible to a superdiverse population. Taken together, the project examines how technology could strengthen person-centered care by enabling more tailored, supportive, and empowering conversations. We hope that this work can contribute to digital care solutions that support accessibility, participation, and trust, through providing DEI-based recommendations for future preventive health interventions. Expected outcomes include guidelines for culturally inclusive communication and encounters, and strategies to reduce digital exclusion, aiming to help shape a digital future where care feels personal, respectful, and reachable for everyone, thus contributing to a more sustainable, equitable primary care system.
Language

English

Conference

GCPCC

GCPCC Code

PCC130

Lecturers

Ines Nikšić Presenter

Ines Nikšić, Anna Brolin, Tove Helldin, Jenny Hallgren