“I Felt Listened to”: Evaluating an AI-Powered Reflection Tool for Care Partners
Jazette Johnson, Hira Jamshed, Rachael Zuppke, Amanda Leggett, Emily Mower Provost, Robin Brewer
Abstract
This article evaluates CareJournal, an AI-powered application on an Amazon Alexa Show designed to support care partners (i.e., older adult receivers and caregivers) in care reflection and communication. CareJournal aims to address challenges faced by care partners in articulating the needs of the care relationships. Through a 4-week pilot study (N = 14 care partner pairs) and a 4-week field study (N = 16 care partner pairs), we assessed the tool’s effectiveness in supporting reflection and generating AI summaries that capture the care partners’ intent. Our findings indicate that CareJournal is a beneficial tool for improving communication intention and focus. We draw upon the role of articulation work in care routines and discuss design implications for AI to support articulation through adaptive reflection tools based on diverse care dynamics and highlight ethical considerations in balancing AI assistance with human agency.