NAD Reminds AI Advertisers: Correlation Is Not Causation

A recent NAD decision involving SafelyYou, an AI-enabled fall detection and monitoring platform for assisted living and memory care facilities, highlights an important theme in AI advertising: proving that a technology is associated with positive outcomes is not the same as proving that the technology itself causes those outcomes. 

NAD reviewed a variety of claims about the platform, including claims about fall detection accuracy, response times, false alarms, reductions in falls and emergency room visits, and cost savings. NAD found that many of the claims—including claims that staff are alerted in seconds, that the system generates very few false alarms, and that communities using the product experienced significant reductions in falls—were supported.