May I Have Your Attention Please? Neuroscience AI’s Role in the Attention Economy

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Way back in 2010, I started following a tiny little startup based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts.?

They were putting cameras in various places, trying to understand what people were paying attention to when they were watching TV. Of course, they expanded and used a lot of the intelligence they’d gathered to understand how attention works in general.

Now, 13 years later, there are a lot of companies doing this. And I decided to talk with my colleague Scott Siegel , who works in PA Consulting’s data science and analytics practice, to help us understand what this means and how attention (or neuroscience) AI works today.

So let’s start with:

What is attention — and why does it matter?

Attention is simply what grabs your attention first. It’s not, Scott points out, what we recognize.

If you’re looking at a store display, what do you choose to look at? What do you see in the context of everything else? Where does your eye go? What does your brain register first??

Attention is a biological function that essentially controls what we see in the first few seconds — what Scott calls “the moment of truth” because you will focus on something or you’ll move on.?

And that’s why attention matters. If you’re hoping to invite someone to engage with your product, you have to be the first thing they focus on. That makes you memorable.

How do we measure attention?

Scott shared that neuroscience AI relies on a biological algorithm — one that’s as unconscious as breathing. Hold on - I’m about to get nerdy here!?

Within the human brain, there’s a visual cortex that registers things like saliency, luminescence, color, motion, etc. Neuroscience AI replicates those areas to determine how attention is captured and what our eye is drawn to. This is more about understanding and anticipating gaze paths, not actual eye tracking.?

We’ve been processing information this way for millions of years, so there’s no machine learning. Our human biology already determines what we see in the first one to five seconds. Neuroscience AI is just mimicking a process hardwired into us and quantifying it.?

And it doesn’t require any hardware investments or cameras — things that could be a deterrent and erode trust . Scott isn’t watching people coming into a store; he’s simply taking an image and running it through an algorithm to generate reports that show an area of interest.

But, Scott says, neuroscience AI is not measuring the emotional response. This technology isn’t judging emotional words or colors that might be used to evoke certain feelings. It’s simply saying, “Biologically, this is where we focused our attention. Here’s what that focus is.”

How are companies using neuroscience AI?

Scott is confident that the field of neuroscience AI will grow rapidly — and exponentially .

Right now, companies are using this technology to see if their products capture attention. Using heat maps and saliency scores, a company can identify areas of interest.?

Scott shared a great example of how this might work. Say he’s the owner of Scott Siegal’s Potato Chips. He might use neuroscience AI to anticipate and understand what someone is looking at on a store’s shelves — and in what order.

He can feed an image of the shelf where his chips are displayed into the algorithm and it will tell him what areas are performing well and what areas are underperforming. He can ask the AI to redesign the shelf space or optimize his current placement so his product stands out more. He can use it to help him determine if there’s interest in his product — and how to get more. Our attention exists in context – in this example, potato chipos on a supermarket shelf.?

But in the future, Scott envisions manufacturers using neuroscience AI to ensure instructions are clear enough and that the consumer is focusing where they need to in order to assemble something.

Anywhere safety is an issue — for example, construction sites and hospitals — neuroscience AI could determine what the brain is registering and how to get attention on the right thing.?

Similarly, Scott sees applications within our education system and our organizations. For example, if you’re designing a slide deck, you could run your slides through an algorithm to very quickly see if people will pay attention to what you want them to and if your design allows enough white space to focus a viewer’s attention on the information.

Like generative AI, neuroscience AI is a rapidly developing field with countless applications. Right now, the platform only captures attention, but it can be extended to understand emotional responses. Yes, we can use the information to understand how brains process information, understand consumer behavior and even predict future behavior. But as with any new technology, we must be transparent about how the technology is being used.

Consumers are certainly wary about privacy. Some have expressed concerns about surveillance…even mind control! That’s what we’ll be talking about next Tuesday, April 11 at 9 am PT . I’ll be sharing PA Consulting’s newest research on consumer attitudes toward AI — a perfect follow-up to today’s discussion!

Your Turn

I’d love to hear from you: What captures your attention? What do you notice when you walk into a store? When you’re walking down the street? Where does your attention go? Maybe you notice motion or colors. Let me know in the comments what you pay attention to!