Mental Wellness at Scale (WYSA)

The wellness organisation Wysa (https://www.wysa.com) provide AI Based psychotherapy support. Their results are impressive and well grounded, including:

• Anxiety and Depression reduced by 28-35% in 28 days.

• Therapeutic alliances formed in 3–5 days, instead of 4–6 weeks.

• Highly regulated, with internal safeguards.

• 6 million people helped in 105 countries and a 33% reduction in lost time days.

• 1 billion conversations, which 91% report as being helpful.

Their platform contains the boundaries and safeguards that you would expect from a platform that provides mental health services, demonstrating what is possible with the right governance.

Feedback highlights that users feel less judged by the AI conversation bot, than a human.

SO WHAT: The therapeutic attachment rates are an indication of the level of trust that humans will put into a system that they see as helping and benefitting them. It highlights a constraint in traditionally provided psychotherapy - the availability and connection to the therapist - which delays the effectiveness of the treatment.

Source: Conversational AI for Mental Health: Potential and Risks