Emotion AI for Personal Growth Companions

About Dot

Dot, a personal AI developed by New Computer, is designed to grow alongside its users, serving as a thought partner, friend, and confidant for young adults navigating uncertainty in their lives. Built on an infinite long-term memory system, Dot's responses become increasingly personalized with each interaction, whether through speech or text.

The Challenge: Moving Beyond Flat, Robotic Conversations

After introducing a voice message feature, New Computer noticed that Dot interpreted messages too literally, relying solely on transcriptions. According to Luca Beetz, Founding AI Engineer, this led to "flat, robotic conversations where Dot often misunderstood the user's intent." Dot would respond with the same standard helpfulness to a question posed in a defeated tone as it would to one posed in an inquisitive tone.

To truly understand users, Dot needed to pick up on nonverbal cues beyond just words.

The Solution: Real Emotional Intelligence

New Computer integrated Hume's Expression Measurement API to recognize users' moods and emotional states. Hume's expression measurement models—built on a decade of research, millions of proprietary data points, and over 30 publications in leading journals—allow Dot to interpret and respond with emotional intelligence to 25 distinct emotions by analyzing vocal tones.

Enhanced Emotional Context: Hume's API allows Dot to maintain emotional context in its long-term memory, enabling it to build a 'theory of mind' about users and how they respond to different topics or circumstances.

Human-Like Interactions: Dot can now respond with greater emotional intelligence, making interactions feel more empathetic and building trust that moves beyond transactional AI messaging.

Seamless Integration: New Computer found integrating the API "extremely easy," taking "less than a day to integrate and get up and running."

Results: Strong Adoption and Conversion

The impact of empathic AI has been significant:

• 60% user adoption of voice messages since integration
• 45% conversion rate to paid subscriptions among consistent users
• Built genuine trust through emotionally intelligent interactions
• Less than one day integration time

"We've seen that users want to be able to interact with Dot over voice, like they would with a friend," says Samantha Whitmore, CEO of New Computer. "Thanks to the emotional interpretations we get from Hume, users are consistently amazed by Dot's ability to intuitively sense and respond to the emotional undertones in their messages."

New Computer attributes much of their high conversion rate to the sense of being seen and heard that Dot provides through emotionally intelligent interactions, demonstrating how empathic AI transforms user relationships from transactional to truly personal.

For more information on how empathic AI can enhance your digital solutions, contact Hume AI.