What Do People Think of Social Robots and Voice Agents as Public Speaking Coaches?

Social robots have the potential to serve as coaches for public speaking training. To design successful social robots, it is important to understand the expectations and perceptions of prospective users of such robots. In this paper, we present thematic analyses of comments made by 168 participants in an online study where participants watched videos of agents in the role of a public speaking coach. The study had a between-participant design with three conditions: two conditions with a humanoid social robot in either (1) active listening mode, i.e., using non-verbal backchanneling, or (2) passive listening mode, and (3) a voice assistant agent. The themes identified and discussed can contribute to the development of social robots and other agents as public speaking coaches.