Designing AI-Powered Chatbots for Dementia Care in Peru: Stakeholder Engagement and Field Observations

Abstract In Peru, dementia caregivers face burnout, depression, stress and financial strain. Addressing their needs involves tackling the intricacies of resourcing, caregiving and managing emotional burdens. Chatbots could serve as a viable support mechanism for these issues in regions with limited resources. We study the perceptions of dementia caregivers in Peru regarding a chatbot tailored to offer care navigation and emotional support. We divided the study into four phases: the initial stage encompassed engaging stakeholders to understand potential design challenges; the second stage focused on the design of ‘Ana’, a chatbot for dementia caregivers; the third stage assessed the chatbot through interviews and a caregiver satisfaction survey and the fourth stage gathered contextual insights through a field study for culturally-sensitive recommendations for ‘Ana’. The findings reveal that caregivers seek immediate access to information on handling behavioural symptoms and a platform for emotional release. Moreover, ‘Ana’ was tested in two configurations—one employed predefined conversation patterns, while the other harnessed generative AI for more dynamic responses. Participants preferred the generative AI alternative of ‘Ana’ as it was perceived to be more empathic and human-like. The participants valued the generative approach despite knowing the potential risk of receiving inaccurate information. Lastly, the field observations challenge the practicality of offering care navigation due to the lack of resources available in the health system and highlight that ‘Ana’ needs to be accessible for the varying educational and technological literacy levels present in Peru. However, we found that WhatsApp could be leveraged to overcome the accessibility challenges due to its pervasiveness in Peruvian society and that Community Health Workers could play a vital role in dementia care interventions.