PlantWhisperer: Designing Conversational AI to Support Plant Care

TL;DR

This paper presents PlantWhisperer, a conversational AI app that enables users to talk to their plants, fostering a sense of connection and well-being, with initial positive user feedback and insights on diverse user expectations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel chatbot-based plant care application and evaluates its impact on psychological well-being, highlighting design considerations for diverse user preferences.

Findings

Participants felt more connected to their plants.

Participants experienced a sense of accomplishment.

Users expressed varied expectations for chatbot interactions.

Abstract

Research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has shown that caring for others, including both humans (e.g., close friends) and computers (e.g., Tamagotchi), can have a positive effect on people's wellbeing. However, we know less about the potential role of conversational AI in such settings. In this work, we explore how AI chatbots can support plant care and, in turn, positively influence people's well-being. We developed a mobile application that allows users to `talk' to their plants via chatbots. We evaluated the application with ten participants and conducted semi-structured interviews based on Seligman's PERMA model, which identifies pillars of psychological well-being. Our findings suggest positive effects, with participants reflecting on a sense of connection to their plants and corresponding feelings of accomplishment. While our findings suggest that participants were generally positive about the app, they also raised concerns about the diverse preferences and expectations of users regarding interactions with chatbots representing plants.