Ask Sophia Digital Assistant (Novo Nordisk, Verint Systems Inc., HyperPointe)
Novo Nordisk created Sophia, a diabetes-specific AI chatbot and digital assistant on Cornerstones4Care.com to provide 24/7 support. Sophia is there for patients outside of normal business hours when traffic on Cornerstones4Care.com consistently spikes—the time in the late hours of the night or early in the morning when patients have to focus on themselves and their disease and healthcare providers, coaches, and customer care agents are not readily available.
It was critical for the team to innovate their technology with the innate ability to form an invisible connection based on empathy and understanding as a human. While it was challenging to adhere to this goal within the heavily regulated space of healthcare, the team managed to do so while mitigating any potential risk to patients and the organization concerning privacy and product safety.
Given that capturing natural, open, and unscripted conversations has never been done like this by a pharmaceutical company before, the Sophia Virtual Assistant technology is not only novel, but truly innovative. The team pioneered a wholly new technology and approach for Novo Nordisk, embracing the challenge, vision, and opportunity.
Sophia can help answer questions such as “What is A1C?” and “What is rapid acting Insulin?” She can also offer restaurant recommendations as well as answer questions that have nothing to do with diabetes such as “What is your favorite color?” or “Do you have any animals?”
Since launching in April 2018, her engagement rate with visitors to Cornerstones4Care.com is over 15%, having had more than 2,500 unique conversations within the first month. Sophia has not only assisted diabetes patients in their hours of need, but has helped shed light on what it is they require from HCPs and other care programs.
