When it comes to reporting abuse or harassment at the workplace, one of the more common ways to go about it is to approach human resources (HR). However as we have seen in recent times and in multiple reports, sometimes HR might not be the most effective and sometimes problems can be swept under the rug or ignored.

This is why Dr. Julia Shaw, Dylan Marriott, and Dr. Daniel Nicolae have worked on a chatbot powered by AI called “Spot”. The idea behind Spot is to provide employees with a neutral third-party in which they can file complaints to. Also since Spot is a chatbot, employees can take their time in filing their reports which can make it more accurate, plus it could also encourage more to speak up since they won’t be talking to an actual person, who might otherwise be biased or could be judging you.

According to Shaw, “If you’re reporting harassment and talking to a human being, there might be bias involved, they may ask leading questions, and you might not trust they’re not going to be sharing that information with something else.” With Spot, users will be asked a bunch of questions, and the results will then be compiled, time-stamped, and encrypted in a PDF report that users can download, send to themselves, or to their employer.

As it stands Spot is free to use, but there are plans to eventually start charging employers for access to reports. It also seems to caught the attention of Evernote’s co-founder, Phil Libin, who will be backing the startup and their efforts. For more information you can head on over to its website.

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