‘Emotion AI’ may be the next trend for business software, and that could be problematic
Companies are using emotion AI to enhance AI bots by detecting human emotions, but its effectiveness and ethical implications are debated.
Businesses are increasingly incorporating emotion AI, a technology that aims to help AI bots understand human emotions, according to PitchBook’s Enterprise SaaS Emerging Tech Research report. This technology is described as a sophisticated successor to sentiment analysis, employing multimodal methods like visual and audio sensors along with machine learning and psychology to detect emotions during interactions.
Major AI cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services offer developers access to emotion AI capabilities, despite previous controversies. The rise of automated bots in the workforce gives emotion AI more significance, potentially enabling bots to interpret and respond more human-like, as noted by Derek Hernandez of PitchBook. Startups like Uniphore, MorphCast, and Voicesense are active in this field, amassing significant venture capital investments.
However, previous research suggests that human emotion cannot be accurately determined by facial movements alone, casting doubts on emotion AI's effectiveness. Additionally, regulatory measures like the EU’s AI Act could limit its applications, particularly in sensitive areas such as education. This raises questions about the future of AI bots in business settings, whether they will truly excel in tasks requiring emotional understanding or remain at the level of existing simple AI assistants like Siri.