Ellen Ward

This session is a case study of innovation in the not-for-profit health sector, where a virtual assistant has been implemented to scale up Versus Arthritis’s ability to provide support to the public. The Arthritis Virtual Assistant (AVA) provides an additional channel of support for people with questions about musculoskeletal conditions like arthritis. Users can have a conversation with AVA to find out more about specific conditions or symptoms, as well as helpful tips on exercise, diet and available support. Since the start of 2019, AVA has been opened nearly 25,000 times. Follow Versus Arthritis’s journey of transformation and the delivery of AVA, the challenges they faced and what they learnt, as well as their plans for integrating AI into the wider organisation.