Can a Private Chatbot Help Couples with the Sensitive Topic of Family Planning?

The Challenge

Research indicates that couples in India are aware of and interested in family planning. But they don’t always feel comfortable talking about the issue with people outside of their household, including health care providers. As a result, couples worry about the perceived side effects and risk of infertility and lack information about the variety of family planning methods available, including how and where to obtain them.

Our Approach

We partnered with askNivi, a two-way conversational chatbot that allows men and men to explore and learn about sexual and reproductive health topics using familiar online platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. We wanted to test whether askNivi might be a feasible way to connect with rural couples and provide them with family planning information in a private and personalized way.

Key Results

Through this askNivi pilot, we are testing the viability and opportunities of this emerging digital channel by asking a number of key questions:

• Which marketing channels and messages persuade people to try askNivi?
• Who is engaging with askNivi?
• What type of sexual and reproductive health content are users exploring?
• Do users see askNivi as a convenient, trusted, and private source of information on sexual and reproductive health?
• Can engagement with askNivi improve people’s family planning knowledge and perceptions and help them connect with sexual and reproductive health services?

Based on our previous research, we know many couples in rural Madhya Pradesh, India, are interested in choosing the size of their families and the spacing of their children’s births. But couples face significant obstacles in their hopes to make an informed decision. Men and women are frequently unwilling to discuss the subject with anyone outside their family, and community health workers can be similarly reluctant to address the topic. Consequently, couples may be relying on incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate information to make important sexual and reproductive health decisions such as choosing the right method to reach their goals. 

Technology offers a way to circumvent those many concerns. Through askNivi, a conversational chatbot that provides information and local resources, men and women in Madhya Pradesh are being offered a new way to get answers to their questions about sexual and reproductive health. Accessible via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, askNivi is available at the user’s convenience, responds promptly, and provides personalized responses to questions while the user maintains his or her privacy. The chatbot can even refer people to nearby family planning services and health care facilities, thanks to geolocation data. 

As promising as that sounds, though, chatbots are still a new technology in rural India.  We need to know the most efficient ways of getting this service into the hands of this group and whether askNivi is a feasible way to deliver family planning information to these users. To determine that, we will measure usage numbers for the chatbot and whether users consider askNivi as a convenient and trusted source for their sensitive questions. We will also evaluate whether a chatbot can shift people’s knowledge and perceptions in a way that drives their intention to use sexual and reproductive health services.   

To determine if this is a scalable approach, we first need to learn when, why and how users turn to askNivi for sexual and reproductive health concerns. Such data could inform how we use emerging technology in under-reached areas to help people access customized health information to make informed family planning decisions.