Wysa was launched in 2016 to solve the global mental health challenge with a safe, scalable AI product that overcomes the barriers to accessing support.
Proven to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms with clinically significant impact, Wysa has supported 6 million people across 95 countries to date.
Overview of benefits to users
- Wysa enables people to take ownership in improving their own mental health and prevent symptoms escalating in severity
- Wysa for population prevention removes the need for people with mild to moderate symptoms to ask for help from professionals
- The AI provides personalised experiences for all users by understanding their needs
- Clinically effective self-help support is 24/7 on-demand smartphone or website access
- Engaging experience that encourages users through daily reminders and check-ins
Solutions for National AI Strategy
AI Preventative Population Self-Help
- Conversational AI creates an anonymous, safe space to work through worries and stressors, preventing them from escalating in severity
- Wysa's AI is clinically proven to create a therapeutic alliance equivalent to a human therapist within the first week.
- Most people feel better after their first conversation and lean on Wysa on-demand for support, any time of day or night
- Wysa's AI continuously looks for crisis indicators and redirects the user towards helplines
- Real world large scale UK trial showed clinically significant improvements in moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety from AI self-help app alone
AI Talking Therapy Programme
- Wysa’s AI Talking Therapy Programme is delivered through conversational AI with built-in clinical safety guardrails
- 6-8 autonomous sessions for common mental health problems such as anxiety, low mood, panic and chronic pain
- Programmes include psychoeducational content, together with daily practice of Cognitive Behavioual Therapy techniques with Wysa
- Wysa is proven to create a therapeutic bond equivalent to that of a human therapist to give people confidence to open up
- Clinical outcome measures are tracked weekly to monitor progress
Current NHS Impact
- Scalability: Rapid mobilisation for large population groups with no limit to the number of users
- Clinical risk management and containment: Users are provided with local and national crisis numbers, can create a safety plan, and access grounding exercises.
- Risk can be flagged to clinicians in real time where NHS services have electronic patient record integration with Wysa
- Anonymous option: Improved access to mental health care for hard-to-reach populations where stigma and risk of social judgement can otherwise prevent people from reaching out for support
- Non-anonymous option: NHS Services are able to save time and resources by allowing patients to refer directly to local services releasing clinician time to care
Future NHS Impact
- Enhance equal access to services by engaging people who otherwise would not come forward for support
- Reduce burden on mental health services through the rollout of Autonomous AI Talking Therapies Programme for common mental health concerns such as anxiety, low mood, panic, and phobia
- Reduce the prevalence of mild mental health problems through the provision of preventative self-management tools that become part of the user's lifestyle
- Reduce strain on physical health primary care and avoid rejected subclinical referrals by providing immediate access to clinically effective mental health support
- Reduce re-referrals with personalised relapse prevention plan following discharge
- Direction to social and economic services and organisations which target social and economic issues that may otherwise hinder recovery, such as housing, debt management and social welfare
An ITN production on how Wysa helps people in NHS Talking Therapy pathways
