‘Digital human’ player Vection drops -3.5% as AI-based US hospital trial kicks off

Vection Technologies (ASX:VR1) has seen its shares drop -3.45% in early lunchtime trades despite launching a Massachusetts General Hospital-based AI trial.

That AI product relates to the ‘Digital Box’ suite Vection picked up in late August via its acquisition of privately held Algho AI (one day before its annual report.)

The key offering of the Digital Box product is ‘digital humans’ – in other words, realistic AI-powered chatbots that coincide with a generated representation of a human speaker who doesn’t actually exist.

In short, Digital Box is a sales conversion tool, though it could also help large hospitals handle high-volume numbers of patients by saving human staff from first-appearance interactions.

The company has had its eyes on the healthcare sector since the buy in August, with a presentation at the time pointing to the desire for AI avatars in healthcare, citing a future example of a digital human pharmacy worker.

It was enough to interest Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which Vection described as one of America’s best. The Digital Box is now part of a “full-scale trial” with a pilot contract “enhanced by a per-conversation pricing model.”

The tech is being used in paediatric cardiology – perhaps not where parents want to talk to an AI-generated person – but Vection says its tech could facilitate 10,000 visits per year.

Of course, in the often underwhelming and more-troubled-than-advertised world of generative AI ‘chatbots,’ there’s a lot that could go wrong.

Regardless, management was bullish on Tuesday.

“This partnership highlights the transformative potential of AI-powered tools like Katherine in delivering early interventions, improving patient outcomes, and creating efficiencies across healthcare ecosystems,” Vection MD Gianmarco Biagi said.

“This agreement also demonstrates our ability to secure strategic agreements and partnerships in the U.S… We proudly support the hospital’s mission to advance patient care.”

VR1 last traded at 2.8cps.

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