Back to the Roots: The Perspectives of Multiple Stakeholders about a

Seamless Physical-Virtual AAL Advisory Service

Rita Tavares de Sousa

1,2 a

, Soraia Teles

1,2 b

, Diotima Bertel

, Paul Schmitter

and Diogo Abrantes

5,2

Institute for the Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Rua Dr. Plácido da Costa, 4200-450, Porto, Portugal

SYNYO GmbH, Otto-Bauer-Gasse 5/14, 1060 Wien, Austria

Zurich University of Applied Science, Campus Grüental, 8820 Waedenswil, Zurich, Switzerland

Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

dmabrantes@gmail.com

Keywords: Trust, Human Advisor, Online Advice, Digital Platforms, AAL, Ambient Assisted-Living.

Abstract: An articulation between the real/physical and the virtual world, i.e. an integrated service logic, is necessary

for advisory service provision in the AAL field in order to best suit the consumers’ needs. However,

personalised feedback is generally missing on digital advisory platforms that promote assistive technologies

and services. This manuscript builds on previous research carried out in the scope of the EU-funded

ActiveAdvice project, that is based on the premise that, in the AAL field, an engagement platform must

promote not only AAL products and services but also empower stakeholders and facilitate the co-creation of

value. Therefore, the concept of an Authorised Active Advisor was created. This paper presents and discusses

the results from a qualitative study carried out to refine the concept of Authorised Active Advisors, by

identifying, their added value and role within an integrated AAL advisory system, as well as their profile,

required knowledge and skills.

1 INTRODUCTION

Ageing well in the community has become a key

concern and a strategic priority of the European

Union and its member states, as a reaction to the

societal challenges posed by the phenomenon of

population ageing (Teles et al., 2017). The pressing

need to develop innovative solutions to address those

challenges – a demand pull – linked to substantial

developments in products and services based on

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

– a technology push – have opened up an important

market of service provision for older adults based on

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions. The AAL

concept corresponds to a new paradigm, building on

ubiquitous computing devices and new interaction

forms targeted at improving older adults’ health,

autonomy, social integration and security (Wichert

and Eberhardt, 2011). Indeed, AAL products and

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0919-4724

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3121-4189

services have been gaining an important place in the

so-called ‘silver economy’, i.e. the economic activity

addressing the needs of those aged 50 and older

including not only products and services purchased

directly by those individuals but also the further

economic activity generated by this spending (Oxford

Economics, 2016), which is estimated to reach $15

trillion by 2020 globally (Euromonitor, 2014). The

AAL market is currently an umbrella market

gathering a large variety of products and services in a

wide variety of application fields (e.g. health,

participation in social life, employment) (AAL

Programme, 2014).

In spite of the growing importance of AAL

solutions for independent ageing, previous reports

highlight the fact that services within this market are

often provided in isolation and in a technocentric way

(Bertel et al., 2018; Teles et al., 2017; Baldissera and

Camarinha-Matos, 2016). These, together with other

146

Tavares de Sousa, R., Teles, S., Bertel, D., Schmitter, P. and Abrantes, D.

Back to the Roots: The Perspectives of Multiple Stakeholders about a Seamless Physical-Virtual AAL Advisory Service.

DOI: 10.5220/0007762201460155

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE 2019), pages 146-155

ISBN: 978-989-758-368-1

well-known factors – such as the lack of public

awareness on AAL solutions, as a result of faulty

information, communication and transparency, as

well as insufficient end-user involvement – influence

the market negatively and are likely to contribute to

the existing gap between technology development

and its uptake by end users (AAL Programme, 2014;

Doyle et al., 2013; Michel and Franco, 2014; Peek et

al., 2014). Paradoxically, at the same time that those

barriers to the market growth prevail, recent trends

have been revealing a shift from a predominantly

public market to a private and consumer or primary

end-user centric market: while AAL solutions were,

until recently, mostly paid by care and social services

for older adults, the demand for such solutions in a

private sphere, i.e. paid with consumer’s own

resources, is gaining visibility (AAL Programme,

2014). This market landscape evidently emphasizes

the need to promote consumer empowerment

regarding the process of finding and selecting the

AAL solution(s) which is (are) best suited to the

individual context and situation. In this sense, there is

a need to propel consumer’s empowerment, as

consumers have been themselves demonstrating a

willingness to become more active and engaged in the

value creation, in what we can define as a new age of

consumer engagement (Brodie et al., 2011).

The offer of high-quality advisory services for end

users on AAL solutions was previously identified as

a promising strategy to minimize the mentioned

constraints, and to promote consumers’ engagement,

but the provision of such services is either missing,

provided at a very small scale, or offered by product

and service providers in the scope of their sales

activities (Bertel et al., 2018; Siegel et al., 2014; Teles

et al., 2017). Investing in ICT solutions to increase the

scale of advisory services through the creation of a

digital neutral/exempt advisory platform on AAL

solutions was previously recognized by AAL

stakeholders as a potential solution to address those

issues (Teles et al., 2017). However, previous

research concluded, from a platform mapping and

analysis, that personalised feedback and/or advice is

generally missing on websites/portals/platforms that

currently promote assistive technologies and services

for older adults (Kofler et al., 2016). Moreover, since

the consumer journey is growing in complexity in

most service sectors, we have, nowadays, rather

complex service logics to consider (Peters et al.,

2015). For instance, it was previously argued that

both user experience and user empowerment are more

likely to be improved when both physical and virtual

touch points are integrated into service provision

(Breidbach et al., 2014). These integrated service

logics would allow taking advantage of virtual

engagement in service provision while at the same

time minimizing the drawbacks from lack of physical

engagement. This premise, and the associated

concept of engagement ecosystem (Breidbach et al.,

2014), was later applied by the authors of this paper

to AAL advisory services provided to older adults and

their caregivers (Bertel et al., 2018).

This manuscript builds on previous research

carried out in the scope of the EU-funded

ActiveAdvice project, which intends to set up a

digital, pan-European advisory and decision-support

platform that brings together the broad range of

available AAL products, services, and stakeholders.

The project is based on the premise that, in the AAL

field, an engagement platform must promote not only

AAL products and services but also empower

stakeholders and facilitate the co-creation of value.

Therefore, based on previous conclusions from this

project as well as on the state-of-art, the concept of an

Authorised Active Advisor was created and its

conceptual discussion was published previously by

Bertel et al. (2018). These advisors are a human

addition to a digital advisory platform (with different

graphical user interfaces (GUIs)) and act as

facilitators and integrators of those different digital

interfaces during the interaction process of the user

with the digital platform.

This paper goes a step further by presenting and

discussing the results from a qualitative study carried

out to refine the concept, by identifying, based on a

multi-stakeholder perspective, the human advisors’

added value and role within an integrated AAL

advisory system, as well as their profile, required

knowledge and skills. It starts by presenting brief

conceptual considerations on the adoption of an

integrated logic for AAL advisory services (cf.

section 2.1) and by discussing the role of human

advice in the context of a digital advisory platform by

presenting the concept of Authorised Active Advisor

(cf. section 2.2). Next, the general approach and

methodology adopted for the conduction of the

qualitative study is presented (cf. section 3) and the

main findings are presented (cf. section 4). Section 5

discusses the lessons learned focusing on how those

can be applied and operationalized in a training

course outline for Authorised Active Advisors.

2 CONCEPTUAL

CONSIDERATIONS

In the last two decades, we have been witnessing

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147

significant developments in the field of ICT that offer

new means of interaction among stakeholders in

virtual environments (Bertel et al., 2018). However,

the authors previously argued, based on user studies

(Teles et al., 2017), mapping and analysis of service

platforms for older adults (Kofler et al., 2016) as well

as on a comprehensive and critical analysis of the

literature on engagement platforms and ecosystems

(Bertel et al., 2018) that an articulation between the

real/physical and the virtual world, i.e. an integrated

service logic, is necessary for advisory service

provision in the AAL field.

Hereinafter, in order to frame the qualitative study

presented in this paper (cf. section 3 and 4) and the

discussion generated from it (cf. section 5), two main

topics are briefly approached in this section: (i) the

added value of adopting an integrated logic for AAL

advisory services; and (ii) the place of human advice

in the context of a digital advisory platform.

2.1 An Integrated Logic for AAL

Advisory Services

The paper size must be set to A4 (210x297 mm).

There is little doubt that ICT has been working as

enablers of service innovation for several service

sectors. However, in recent years, a trend of ‘shifting

back’ to the physical/face-to-face (f2f) interaction has

been observed. Digital service providers have been

expanding their portfolio from entirely virtual into the

realm of additional physical experience (Bertel et al.,

2018; Breidbach et al. 2014). This is the case for a

number of IT organisations (e.g. Google, Microsoft),

which have been detaching from a purely virtual

service logic.

From a consumer empowerment point of view,

digital service touch points have been allowing

consumers to expect more service, information and

support than before as they increasingly become

aware of their influence on service provision and/or

on the market. However, as digital means of

interaction annul the traditional f2f interaction, the

user’s acceptance can be compromised and has to be

the main concern of service providers. The key aspect

that might jeopardize users’ acceptance of digital

services and platforms is trust in such interaction

points; this, in turn, is highly influenced by the

presence of community features and privacy cues in

digital services as well as by their degree of

personalisation and feedback (Obal and Kunz, 2013).

Indeed, trust is one of the most critical issues in what

concerns consumer-service provider interaction

(Cummins et al., 2014), and one of the main reasons

to invest in an integrated model, i.e. digital-physical,

in service provision.

The authors previously pointed out that while

these arguments apply to a wide range of service

sectors, they hold special relevance for the AAL

market and specifically for advisory services in this

field (Bertel et al., 2018). First, not only trust was

shown as a key attitudinal factor for the uptake of

AAL solutions by consumers, i.e. older adults

(Olphert et al., 2009), as the authors concluded from

a previous study that f2f interaction is perceived as

more trustworthy (Teles et al., 2017). Also, as AAL

solutions frequently fulfil health-related needs,

consumers’ trust in purely digital services including

information platforms seems to be further challenged:

data security and privacy acquire increased relevance

and the fear of getting low quality, biased or

misleading information from non-reliable or exempt

sources tends to be more evident (Marschollek et al.,

2007; Teles et al., 2018).

A second argument favouring an integrated

service logic for AAL advisory services relates to the

specific features of AAL solutions and their market:

while advice on AAL solutions is usually complex, as

answering to a consumer’s need frequently requires

an integration of products and services from different

providers, this occurs in a context where

interoperability problems still prevail and no broad

and comprehensive information about products,

services, and providers for consumers is yet available.

Moreover, being in need of support and the

possibilities to offer that support is usually dependent

on the local and regional context, and accommodating

such complex and context-specific logics in an

optimal service provision for older adults is hardly

achievable by a stand-alone digital service.

Nowadays this is inevitably with nearly all online

product databases or stores currently found within the

AAL market. However, resorting to either f2f or

digital consultancy alone on AAL solutions was

reported to be time-consuming, burdensome and,

most of the times ineffective (Teles et al., 2017). This

might relate, on the one hand, to the conflicts of

interest or limited information held by those who

typically provide such f2f advice (e.g. sellers; care

providers with no specific training/knowledge on

such solutions) and, on the other hand, to the absence

of digital advice in this field and lack of

specialisation, comprehensiveness, and

personalisation of information offered online (Kofler

et al., 2016). Indeed, due to both trust issues and gaps

in high-quality online advice, it was reported that

consultation of AAL solutions happens in the virtual

reality, but is often limited to a first consultancy, with

ICT4AWE 2019 - 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

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ongoing advice being searched in the physical sphere

(Teles et al., 2017).

A third and last argument for a digital-human

advisory integration relies on the characteristics of

older adults as a consumer group. In particular, and

considering that older adults are a quite

heterogeneous group – which could be per se an

argument for a service logic that offers two

interaction interfaces – it is a fact that the digital

divide still affects this population group (Negreiro,

2015) and that preferences for f2f contact are still

reported. Despite a decreasing trend of the digital

divide within this group, older adults are still often

confused by technology options, lack confidence

using online channels, and their readiness to accept

technological solutions depends on many individual

aspects such as education, age, gender, physical,

mental and cognitive skills, expectations or

biographical experience. Even if barriers associated

with ICT skills are expected to decrease in future

generations (Reginatto, 2012), as it is hard to predict

to what extent and speed that will happen and how

preferences will evolve, an integrated logic for AAL

advisory services might be better able to

accommodate future trends.

The challenge now, especially in the verification

of a recent shift from a predominantly public market

to a private consumer-centric market, is to find how

to integrate both virtual and physical dimensions in

an optimal solution for AAL advisory services. This

is further discussed in the scope of the proposed

figure of ‘Authorised Active Advisor’, presented in

the following section.

2.2 Human Advice in a Digital

Advisory Platform

The premise, discussed in the previous section, that

an integrated service logic for AAL advisory services

would best suit the consumers’ needs – i.e. older

adults and their caregivers – and best promote their

empowerment, was extrapolated to the developments

within the ActiveAdvice project, with the conclusion

that the digital advisory platform developed in this

project cannot be a stand-alone solution (Teles et al.

2017). Rather, it has to be part of an integrated and

systematic service logic, incorporating both virtual

and physical services and promoting the integration

of different actors with diverse interests and

contributions. Therefore, and as described above, the

concept of ‘Authorised Active Advisors’ was born

within the project. These advisors act as a human

addition to the digital platform and can help

increasing personalization in AAL services,

empowering the consumers in making decisions,

enhance trust in AAL advisory and encourage older

adults to participate in digital communities (also

contributing to the minimization of the digital divide

still affecting this age group). They will also

contribute to raising awareness of AAL in general.

The main task of the Authorised Active Advisor

is to assist the individual person in finding the right

solution for their problem or goal. They, thus, (i) have

to be able to listen to the needs of the end user and

translate those into a search strategy that

complements the digital advisory component; (ii) be

able to identify relevant solutions and suppliers, and

to assess their pertinence towards each situation; (iii)

to assist and guide the individual during the decision-

making process; and (iv) to follow-up on satisfaction

and stimulate users to provide feedback on the

platform (Bertel et al., 2018; Denis, 2017).

The potential target group addressed by the

human advisors is diverse and in accordance with the

AAL stakeholders (Nedopil et al., 2013). In general,

the following stakeholder groups have been identified

within the ActiveAdvice project (see Table 1) and

form the basis of the further delineation of the

potential target groups (based on Kofler and

Schmitter, 2017; compare Teles et al., 2017).

Table 1: AAL Stakeholders Groups.

Consumer

Older adults aged between 55 to 70 years old,

characterized by being active and autonomous.

Includes older adults who decided to invest in a

new home and/or who wish to think ahead and

adapt the house for upcoming chronic illnesses

and future loss of autonomy.

Older adults who are facing a loss of autonomy

and wish to live longer at home.

Relatives and/or informal caregivers of older

adults. This can be because of effective loss of

autonomy (therefore forced to find a solution), but

also to prevent further degradation, loss of

functionality and autonomy (prevention).

Business

Suppliers of solutions (products, services or a

combination)

Suppliers of solutions and services that could take

a role as “active advisor”

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Table 1: AAL Stakeholders Groups. (cont.)

Government

Suppliers of services or solutions. This can be

under normal market conditions (e.g. a provision

of home assistance services), or under subsidized

schemes for specific target groups.

Suppliers of services assessing the needs of older

adults and directing them towards the right

solution or service. This segment could play a role

as “active advisor”.

Policy makers at local, regional and national

levels. Policies linked to ageing, living longer at

home, health services, and home care services.

Public Services, senior organizations, interest

groups, care cooperatives

The main target group of Authorised Active

Advisors is the first stakeholder group – ‘Consumer’

(AAL2C). As described above, older adults are still

facing much difficulty when it comes to technology.

The challenge is, therefore, to understand each

person’s individual situation and provide the most

suitable AAL solution.

Besides the primary target group, informal and

formal caregivers play a vital role in the decision-

making process. Similar to older adults, formal and

informal caregivers possess heterogeneous

competencies, interests, and needs, and can benefit

from AAL technologies. Informal and formal

caregivers can either recognise technology as

beneficial in supporting them or as a concern, as they

fear technology may reduce the quality of personal

care (e.g. privacy loss, increased loneliness). This

aspect should be taken into consideration by human

advisors dealing with formal caregivers.

3 GENERAL APPROACH AND

METHODOLOGY

A qualitative study was conducted to identify, based

on a multi-stakeholder perspective, the human

advisors’ added value and role within an integrated

AAL advisory system, as well as their profile,

required knowledge and skills. In this sense, several

activities were carried out by the consortium in order

to delineate the concept of Authorised Active

Advisors, and to create a training outline based on an

explorative analysis of their needs and requirements.

Besides a range of workshops within the consortium

and desk research, two workshops with a total of 14

participants and a number of 15 semi-structured

interviews with 16 different stakeholders that

potentially fit the human advisor profile were carried

out. In addition, insights gathered from the end-user

tests were taken into consideration. Figure 1 shows

the logic of these activities.

Expertise & Experience within the Consortium

Desk Research

2 Workshops

(14 participants)

Interviews

(16 participants)

Authorised Active Advisors

Human Advisor Concept & Training Outline

Figure 1: Approach and methodology.

In particular, both workshops and semi-structured

interviews were aimed to answer the following set of

questions:

● What are the benefits of Authorised Active

Advisors in addition to the digital advisory

platform, and who are their target group(s)?

● What is the profile and role of an Authorised

Active Advisor?

● What kind of knowledge and skills are needed to

become an Authorised Active Advisor and how

should that knowledge be delivered (i.e. which

training concept are they looking for/would make

sense for their specific case)?

The two workshops took place at the AAL Forum

2018 in Bilbao, Spain and in the Netherlands,

respectively. While the workshop at the AAL Forum

involved members of the AAL community, the

workshop in the Netherlands involved employees of

the municipality of Alkmaar, providing advisory

services to older adults and their relatives and

informal caregivers. The interviews were carried out

in five different countries of the consortium partners:

Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK.

A qualitative analysis was performed using the

method of data matrices based on Nadin and Cassell

(2011). All answers were transferred as summaries

into a matrix. Each of the sections of the matrix was

subdivided; the columns were labeled with the

corresponding codes linked to the research questions,

and the rows contained the respective interviewee.

For each interview, a summary was written (case

description per row) to better understand individual

assumptions. A summary for each code (per column)

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was then added and grouped into: Benefits of the

Authorised Active Advisors; Profile of the

Authorised Active Advisors; Skills and Knowledge

of the Authorised Active Advisors. The insights

arising from these activities are presented in the next

section. They are neither exhaustive nor are they

representative, as an explorative approach was chosen

given the nature of the knowledge we aimed to

produce.

4 AUTHORISED ACTIVE

ADVISORS – LESSONS

LEARNED

As result of the analysis, we were able to foresee and

gather some valuable insights regarding the (i)

benefits, (ii) profiles, and (iii) skills and knowledge

of the Authorised Active Advisors, thus contributing

to the debate and to the development of a training

outline.

4.1 Benefits of the Authorised Active

Advisors

The value proposition of the Authorised Active

Advisor contemplates benefits for all three target

groups of the ActiveAdvice project – consumers,

businesses and governments –, following the multi-

stakeholder approach of the ActiveAdvice project.

First and foremost, the ‘consumers’ target group

directly benefits from the Authorised Active Advisor,

whose activities consist in assisting older adults to

access AAL content, helping them to choose and buy

products and services, recommending technology that

will support them and providing comprehensive

information and knowledge on AAL solutions.

Studies have shown that many older adults are not

aware of existing technologies that have the potential

of improving their lives (Peek et al., 2016). The

concept of AAL itself is not understood by end users

as it is generally defined, being documented that

users’ concept of technology is less exclusive by

including devices that are not ICT-based (e.g. home

adaptations; Peek et al., 2016). Therefore, the

literature is prolific in calls for delivering awareness

and training to all stakeholders about the

opportunities and challenges in the AAL field

(Agbakoba et al., 2015; Nieboer et al., 2014; Olphert

et al., 2009). Older adults, as well as their relatives,

have a preference to receive advice f2f (Teles et al.,

2018; Teles et al., 2017), as this allows

personalisation, which constitutes a major benefit

since it gives response to the users’ needs. In fact, the

Authorised Active Advisor can guarantee that there is

a proper response to the consumer’s real needs,

articulating those with the right product/ solution and

avoiding, at the same time, an information overload

that could be harmful to the decision process. The

existence of an Authorised Active Advisor also

contributes in tackling social isolation by establishing

human interaction, which consequently has a major

impact in gaining the user’s trust (Damodaran and

Olphert, 2010; Novitzky et al., 2015; Olphert et al.,

2009; Siegel et al., 2014; Teles et al, 2017) and

reducing the fear of losing social contact (Lewin et

al., 2010). By fostering confidence among older

adults in using online channels, the Authorised Active

Advisor further helps them to regain self-confidence

and, consequently, become more independent.

Although Authorised Active Advisors plays

primarily an advisory role towards consumers, both

businesses and governments also benefit from them.

Reducing stigmatization of AAL technologies,

promoting market equipment attractively and

offering differentiation over other catalogue websites

(that do not contemplate a human advisor component)

are some of the positive impacts on businesses. This

is of high relevance, as many enterprises in the

business field of AAL are struggling with

demonstrating the return on investment of their

solutions to the client (Reginatto, 2012). Moreover,

lack of general public awareness about AAL

technologies and their potential benefits is identified

by business stakeholders as one obstacle to introduce

and succeed with this products and services in the

market (Balta-Ozkana, et al., 2013). Authorised

Active Advisors can help to overcome this challenge.

In addition, Authorised Active Advisors are able to

provide expert feedback on users’ evaluation of AAL

products, feeding the ActiveAdvice platform with

professional feedback and testimony, which is

preferred to direct user feedback by consumers (Teles

et al., 2017; Teles et al., 2018).

For governments, the existence of the Authorised

Active Advisor has the potential to increase the

number of people self-funding AAL solutions and, on

the other hand, to reduce the number of people using

council services. Research has shown that

governments have a significant role in supporting

AAL adoption through defining regulation, funding

and participating in R&D projects, and participating

in the commercialization of products and services

(Ehrenhard et al., 2014). In addition, it has been stated

that governments are motivated and need to invest in

awareness campaigns focusing on AAL solutions in

order to demonstrate its benefits, as well as to explain

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151

about their security and privacy risks (Wright et al.,

2007; Reginatto, 2012).

In summary, the existence of an Authorised

Active Advisor has several benefits, since:

 They listen to the consumer ’ s needs and

translate those needs into a search strategy that

complements the digital advisory component;

 They identify solutions and suppliers and assess

their pertinence towards each situation;

 They assist and guide the individual during the

decision-making process;

 They follow-up on satisfaction and stimulate

users to provide feedback on the platform;

 They feed the platform with professional

feedback/testimony.

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properly numbered, font size 9-point and no bold or

italic font style should be used. Captions with one line

should be centred and if it has more than one line

should be set to justified.

4.2 Profile of the Authorised Active

Advisors

As human advisors are considered one of the core

concepts of the ActiveAdvice project, a clear

definition of the intended profile that is aligned to the

core values of the project and the business plan is

needed. Initially (Bertel et al., 2018), the consortium

explored four options or possible profiles for

Authorised Active Advisors: (i) professionals in the

process of assisting older people (e.g. occupational

therapists, care workers, architects); (ii) volunteers

(including retired persons interested in AAL solutions

and associates of user associations); (iii) public sector

employees (e.g. within a municipality, or other

sectors such as home adaptation, energy etc.); and (iv)

suppliers of solutions. Having these different

possibilities in mind, the data we gathered from the

interviews and workshops proved to be of crucial

importance since it allowed us to refine the profile.

In this sense, and from the participants’

perspectives, we conceptualised two advisor profiles:

the human advisor primarily either (i) works in an

existing organisation or a business within the ageing

and care market (AAL product development, AAL

advisory, sales and marketing, social care

organisations, education, and governmental bodies)

(profile A) or (ii) has practical care/ medical

experience and know-how in dealing with older

people (i.e. gerontologists, occupational therapists,

social educators, etc.) (profile B). The importance of

having someone with (professional) experience in the

ageing field was stressed by participants and is in

accordance with the possibilities already considered

by the consortium.

Figure 2: Human Advisor Profiles and Target Groups.

Figure 2 above illustrates the advice offered by the

Authorised Active Advisors to the different target

groups. As it can be seen, there is no distinction made

between the human advisor profiles and the end-user

target groups. Rather, the appropriate support is

offered on an individual basis. There are two main

human advisor profiles (see Figure 2 above) who can

offer advice to one of the three main target groups that

are either seniors, informal caregivers, and formal

caregivers. Because ActiveAdvice guarantees a

comprehensive training concept for all human

advisors, the quality of advice offered by either one

of the profiles is mutual.

4.3 Skills and Knowledge of the

Authorised Active Advisors

Participants also highlighted two main areas in which

human advisors must demonstrate knowledge and

expertise: (i) social skills and (ii) knowledge about

ICT/technology and AAL. It must be noted, here, that

interpersonal relationship skills – like empathy,

patience, communicational skills, etc. – were

considered to be more important prerequisites than

technical or AAL knowledge.

Besides the two main areas pointed out above,

human advisors should also have a general

understanding of the ageing process and its different

challenges - “it is important that this person has some

knowledge of main diseases or health problems

associated with the ageing process, like dementia for

ICT4AWE 2019 - 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

152

example. Also, they should have some knowledge of

the difficulties underlying people's lives, for example,

know or have some information about the context

where the person lives, their health conditions, what

they need…” (PT).

In addition, as Authorised Active Advisors will

also be promoting the ActiveAdvice platform, some

general knowledge regarding the ActiveAdvice

project is mandatory, namely, what the ActiveAdvice

consortium stands for, what the core values are and

what the vision and mission of ActiveAdvice are.

Lastly, human advisors need a certain flair, social

commitment and intrinsic motivation to offer advice

and assist older adults in their local community.

In spite of existing knowledge potential human

advisors from both identified profiles bring with

them, it is necessary to provide further training for

these groups to ensure that the Authorised Active

Advisors have the necessary knowledge for their

tasks.

5 DISCUSSION AND

CONCLUSIONS

Advice is considered a key service that can have a

great impact on and bring significant benefits to

people who resort to digital platforms for advice.

Previous work from the ActiveAdvice project shows

that, for example, end users want to learn which

products or services are useful for their specific

situation, what makes their ‘life easier’ or where and

how to find a specific product. Especially with a shift

to a private consumer market, empowering the

individual consumer with targeted advice minimises

constraints in the AAL market and allows co-creation

of value. The ActiveAdvice platform provides the

much-needed information on AAL products and

services, and thus helps the users to gather detailed

insights before buying a product or asking for a

service. The Authorised Active Advisor, as a human

addition to the digital platform, is a necessary and

important complement; and they have the potential to

impact the uptake of the ActiveAdvice platform as

well as AAL solutions in general. They fill a gap that

an otherwise exclusively digital environment cannot

provide, i.e. the possibility for personal contact and

human touch (which increases trust), and context

knowledge for the individual situation, thus boosting

confidence, especially of older users of the platform.

There are some reasons constraining end users to

use or access online platforms, namely the lack of

trust in online-advice. Security, trust and safety are

main issues when discussing the acceptance of

internet for commercial interactions. Lack of trust in

ICT use and fears regarding access to personal data

by others seems to prevent older adults from carrying

out online transactions (Olphert et al., 2009).

Furthermore, online advice can also be biased, since

it might not always be transparent who is giving

advice or their link to the products/services they are

advising on. The integrated service logic connected to

the concept of Authorised Active Advisors allows

personalisation of feedback, increases trust as well as

the quality of advice, as AAL solutions are usually

complex and often need integration of products and

services from different providers and stakeholders, as

outlined above. In this sense, having a human

advisory component in addition to the purely digital

platform could have a great impact in the way users

resort to the ActiveAdvice platform. This was already

raised during the requirements analysis of the

ActiveAdvice platform (Teles et al., 2017), and

confirmed by the human advisor interviews.

According to a previous study carried out within

the ActiveAdvice project (Bertel et al., 2018), an

Authorised Active Advisor can be conceptualized as

a mediator between AAL providers and consumers,

helping users with the process of informed decision-

making – a human touch to the ICT platform.

The following added values are the main impact

of the Authorised Active Advisor:

- Personal contact and human touch;

- Trust;

- Context knowledge;

- Ability to fill gaps in the digital advisor system;

- Confidence;

- Decision support.

In line with these core values, the ActiveAdvice

technical solution – which aims at providing decision

support and information –, offers the tools and

intelligence to the Authorised Active Advisors to

provide end users with up-to-date, useful and

applicable knowledge about AAL products and

services, options for financial support and customer

feedback, and the possibility to share experiences and

knowledge within a community of Authorised Active

Advisors.

However, many open questions remain regarding

the human advisor concept. First, trust in the advisor

is a core question – requirement interviews carried

out within the project (Teles et al., 2017) showed that

a concern is around the neutrality vs. expertise of the

advisor (for instance business actors perceived advice

as being best given by those who sell a product, who

are, on the other hand, ‘not neutral’ actors). Second,

growing old and being in need for care is a rather local

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153

experience, therefore different advisor profiles are

probable to emerge in distinct local realities. It is up

to the ActiveAdvice project to come up with a

detailed training concept to provide the necessary

knowledge and leverage the full potential of the

integrated service logic.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the co-

financing by the European Commission AAL Joint

Programme and the related national agencies in

Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal,

Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. One of the

authors is individually supported by the Portuguese

Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT;

D/BD/135496/2018; PhD Program in Clinical and

Health Services Research (PDICSS)).

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