Background. Quitting smoking is a challenge nowadays. Virtual coaches offer autonomous, personalized guidance for smoking cessation. However, such systems cannot replace human coaches completely. In situations, when human coaches cannot provide help to everyone - a virtual coach could follow a set of ethical principles to decide on who should get the feedback from a human.
Objective. Our study aims to identify users’ preferences on ethical principles that a virtual coach should follow to decide when to allocate human feedback to individuals preparing to quit smoking.
Methods. Our research was based on pre-gathered data, that included participants’ responses to open and closed questions regarding feedback allocation principles. Thematic analysis was conducted on these responses. Triangulation was performed using a qualitative literature review and quantitative data analysis.
Results. Four main themes were identified: (1) Struggling the Most (63.75%), (2) Increasing Chances of Success the Most (13.75%), (3) Equal Treatment (11.25%), and (4) Appreciating the Most (11.25%). Participants prioritized support for those experiencing the greatest difficulty in smoking cessation. The triangulation supported the validity of these themes.
Conclusions. Our study highlights the importance of integrating user-preferred ethical principles in virtual coaching systems for smoking cessation. Prioritization of users who struggle the most can increase the effectiveness and fairness of such systems, potentially increasing success rates. Future research should explore additional ethical principles, combining several principles into systems, and real-world application of these findings to further refine virtual coaching in healthcare.