Need mental health support? Employers now have an app for that – AI wellness chatbot

The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to help employers provide wellness and mental health options for workers could be a major story in 2024, if current trends continue. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal outlined the demand for AI wellness and mental health programs, saying that the use of chatbots is “snowballing” in the health benefits industry.

Driving the trend is an increase in demand for mental health services, at a time when provider supply may actually be shrinking, due to burnout and other post-COVID trends among providers. The website Behavioral Health Business noted that among benefit providers, there is an interest in the possibilities that AI provides.

“Mental health companies are also seeking new business models and partners to grow,” the article noted. “Rising workloads for clinicians, and too few appointments for patients, are among the reasons providers are looking to course-correct.”

Other experts are downright enthusiastic: “There’s no place in medicine that [chatbots] will be so effective as in mental health,” said Thomas Insel, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health and co-founder of Vanna Health, which provides programs focused on those with serious mental illness. Insel, quoted in Scientific American, said that In the field of mental health, “We don’t have procedures: we have chat; we have communication.”

Millions of downloads, with new developments in technology

The Scientific American article, from June, noted that demand has been real, and growing: two companies, Woebot Health and Wysa, have both reported that their apps have had more than a million downloads. Amazon employees are provided with another platform, Twill, which uses a personalized support system including AI, peer communities, and virtual coaching. The Wall Street Journal article noted a survey that found that about one-third of employers in the U.S. offer some type of digital therapeutic support for mental health.

The momentum toward providing mental health care that includes AI systems will lead to even more data to help fine-tune care, said Katie DiPerna Cook, senior vice president at Headspace, who was quoted in the Behavioral Health Business article. “In 2024, we’ll start to see more digital mental health providers release ROI studies that show cost and outcome improvements – things like a reduction in outpatient costs, a decrease in spending for comorbidities, increased engagement over the long term, and improved [scores for depression and anxiety],” she said. “These proof-of-concept studies will help increase interest in the pay-for-outcomes model among payers and employers.”

A cautionary tale—the case of Tessa

However, there have been some cases where AI-assisted programs have not worked well. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) shut down its human-staffed helpline in early 2023 and turned to a chatbot provider, Tessa, to help people seeking guidance about eating disorders.

But within two months, experts in the field were reporting that the chatbot was giving “problematic” advice to callers, and that some of that advice was the opposite of what human providers would prescribe as proper treatment. At the end of May, NEDA put out a statement saying the program “may have given information that was harmful,” and that the association would suspend it immediately.

The WSJ article outlined other criticisms of AI-driven mental health care: “Some researchers say there isn’t sufficient evidence the programs work, and the varied security and safety practices create a risk that private information could be leaked or sold,” the article noted. “’The companies are well known to be overextending claims about what they can do,’ said Dr. John Torous, director of the digital-psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston. ‘Employers offering it, in some ways it is tokenism, saying we’re offering something for mental-health support.’”

A supplement, rather than a solution

Many in the field say that AI can help with providing mental health services, if balanced with the work of human providers. Mental health experts in the Behavioral Health Business article suggested that a fair amount of complications are likely to come with the new technology.

Related: How technology can boost employee mental health and wellbeing

“The foundation of behavioral health care is human-to-human contact and infusing technology won’t replace that. However, it will minimize the time it takes to see a new provider and keep patients and clinicians connected in the gaps between appointments,” said Roy Shoenberg, president and CEO of Amwell.

“By leveraging health tech, the industry can support more people in the coming year without adding to the burden of an understaffed workforce. It’s how the industry can care for those who need it and for those who do the caring.”