Embodied conversational agents are often included in health behaviour change
applications as intelligent virtual coaches. A major challenge in their development is …

The use of intelligent virtual agents (IVA) to support humans in social contexts will depend
on their social acceptability. Acceptance will be related to the human's perception of the IVAs …

The demand for intelligent virtual advisors in our rapidly advancing world is rising and,
consequently, the need for understanding the reasoning process to answer why a particular …

Virtual advisors (VAs) are being utilised almost in every service nowadays from
entertainment to healthcare. To increase the user's trust in these VAs and encourage the …

Interventions to improve health and well-being abound. Whether they are designed for
prevention, maintenance or improvement, a key challenge is the motivation of the user to …

Mental illness is one of the most pressing public health issues of our time. Economic
constraints, social stigma, and scarce availability of professionals require, on one hand, to …

Introduction Only a minority of people living with mental health problems are getting
professional help. As digitalisation moves on, the possibility of providing internet/mobile …

Within the emerging context of using interactive conversational agents (CAs) to persuade
and activate individuals' behavior changes, it is important to understand how to design CAs …

Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) are virtual agents that exhibit humanlike verbal
and non-verbal behaviours. When it comes to eHealth, ECAs can provide vital support to …

Recent technological advancements promise new potentials for the use of therapeutic
conversational agents (CAs) to deliver mental health interventions. However, both …