ArticleBMC women's health2025
From needs assessment to usability testing: evaluating the AinoAid™ chatbot for domestic violence support.
Article in BMC women's health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Artificial intelligence in intimate partner violence risk pathways: a PRISMA-ScR review of femicide prevention and medico-legal accountability.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Pooled it
- AI-Enabled First-Response Support After Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: A PRISMA-ScR Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSurvivors of domestic violence (DV) often encounter barriers when accessing professional support services. These barriers arise, for example, from uncertainty in identifying violence, limited knowledge of support options, and psychological barriers such as fear or shame. To address these challenges, the European project IMPROVE developed AinoAid™, a data-secure and multilingual website with an integrated chatbot. Developed in collaboration with psychotherapists, the chatbot provides low-threshold, anonymous, empathetic access to information on domestic violence support services, risk assessment and legal procedures. Ultimately, AinoAid™ seeks to serve as a safe, informative gateway to protection and support.
methodsEmploying a mixed-methods design, Study 1 involved interviews with 80 DV survivors from Austria, Germany, Finland, France and Spain to explore their openness and needs concerning an AI chatbot for 24/7 support. Furthermore, Study 2 was a German evaluation survey of 669 users, assessing perceived safety, usability, utility and interaction quality of AinoAid™.
resultsIn Study 1, interviewees predominantly reported limited prior chatbot experience, yet expressed remarkably positive attitudes toward the potential use of a chatbot tailored for DV support. They emphasized the importance of data safety, chatbot accessibility and usability, offering suggestions on chatbot content tone and promotion. The evaluation in Study 2 indicated a positive overall rating of the chatbot by users, with perceived safety emerging as the most highly rated feature. Study participants suggested improving the chatbot's empathy, engagement, input comprehension, follow-up integration, and memory of previous statements. Additionally, users called for more personalized information, actionable guidance and direct links to relevant support services.
conclusionsOur evaluation confirms that the AI chatbot AinoAid™ functions as a safe, accessible, and effective gateway to protection and support for DV survivors. Its perceived great strength, its impartiality due to its non-human nature, presents, on the other hand, also a significant challenge in meeting the high expectations for human-like, empathetic, and dynamic conversations in such a sensitive context. However, we anticipate that sustained usage and continuous training will even further enhance the AI ability to fully meet the evolving needs of domestic violence survivors.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.