An application of conversational systems to promote healthy lifestyle habits

Recent reports indicate the multiple benefits of adopting conversational systems for healthcare, providing automation of management tasks in overburdened healthcare systems, improved patient experiences, and better efficiency and productivity rates. In this paper, we describe a conversational system aimed at promoting healthy lifestyle habits related to nutrition and physical exercise. The system has been developed using Google’s Dialogflow platform and the combination of different APIs and data repositories in the cloud. It has been integrated in the Facebook Messenger instant messaging platform. The results of the preliminary assessment of the system through a subjective questionnaire show the high degree of satisfaction of the users with the functionalities provided and the help offered to allow fulfilling the predefined objectives.