South African-based Parent Sense will add a chatbot to its app in September. This follows the company recently reaching the 130 000 downloads milestone in the Android and iOS app stores.
Launched in 2020, Parent Sense tracks a new-born baby's regimen and provides real world parental advice. The app intuitively suggests a flexible routine, with prompts for when it's time for the next feed, bath or sleep time.
It also tracks weight, health patterns and vaccination schedule. It uses data to adjust to the baby’s 24-hour routine and provides customised feeding and sleeping times so that parents don’t have to do it manually.
In an e-mail interview, Meg Faure, founder of Parent Sense, tells ITWeb the chatbot is being developed by London-based software company CX Studios.
“The Parent Sense chatbot is an exciting development that goes above and beyond what current chatbots are capable of doing,” notes Faure.
“A new mom might be anxious about their baby’s feeding and ask the chatbot ‘is my baby feeding enough?’ or maybe ‘is my baby getting enough sleep?’ when enquiring about their baby’s sleeping pattern. The chatbot will be able to provide info in text format.
According to Faure, the chatbot will identify and classify questions in red, amber and green categories.
Green will be a question about helping a baby to crawl, for example. Red would be a complex question, with triggers such as 'fever' or 'rash', for example.
In potential emergency cases, the chatbot will be able to instruct the user to immediately seek medical advice, she says.
Upon its release, the chatbot will be available within the app in the chat section and as an open API for medical insurers, employee wellness organisations and any other companies looking to integrate it into their systems.
Faure is an occupational therapist by profession and says the chatbot will be created with a filter that uses all her work from the past 20 years.
“The engineering behind the chatbot will ensure the chatbot would only offer answers that are in line with my expertise,” comments Faure.
She points out that the chatbot will be built with a medical triage function that prevents it offering medical advice.
In recent months, the company has added several new features to the app, including a weekly poll for users to engage with and offer support to each other; a weekly video feature from Faure, which includes tips and advice for parents; and a responsive routine feature, which helps parents track their children’s routines.
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