How does the EU emotion AI ban affect customer sentiment analysis and agent empathy analysis?

The EU AI Act restricts the use of AI systems that infer emotions in workplace and educational settings, with exceptions only for medical or safety purposes (Chapter II, Art. 5(1)(f)). This restriction is driven by concerns about the scientific validity, reliability, and potential power imbalances of such AI systems in these contexts. Recital 44 of the Act emphasizes that AI systems using biometric data to infer emotions or intentions can be intrusive and lead to discriminatory outcomes, posing risks to individual rights and freedoms.

Genesys Cloud’s sentiment analysis operates differently and does not fall under this restriction. It analyzes customer interactions based on language used, assigning sentiment scores to phrases within interaction transcripts without using biometric data. For more information on this process, see Understand sentiment analysis.

Similarly, Genesys Cloud’s Agent Empathy Analysis evaluates the language used by customer service representatives to assess empathy and emotional intelligence during interactions. This analysis focuses on the dialogue within the transcripts and provides insights into the quality of customer care without relying on any biometric data. For more information about agent empathy analysis, see Understand agent empathy analysis.