Designing AI-powered Interventions for Digital Well-being: A Co-Design Approach to Support Digital Detox | British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (Ref: SRG25\251453) | £9963

This project explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can support healthier digital habits by encouraging intentional breaks from device use, known as digital detox. It adopts a user-centred approach, combining a systematic literature review, co-design sessions, and online experimental studies. The literature review will identify existing digital detox interventions and users’ motivations and challenges. Co-design sessions will engage users in generating ideas, which the research team will map onto both current and emerging AI capabilities, to explore how AI might be used to design, enhance, or deliver support. Selected concepts will be tested in online experimental studies to assess their appeal, feasibility, and acceptability. The project aims to develop ethically grounded and practical insights into how AI can contribute to digital well-being by supporting reduced screen use in ways that are both meaningful and acceptable to users.