Artificial intelligence may just be the key to getting your employees to talk about their mental health.
Data has shown that 82% of individuals believe that robots can support their mental health needs better than another human, according to a study conducted by software company Oracle. In fact, of the 85% of employees that say their mental health issues at work negatively affect their home life, 68% would prefer to talk to a robot over their manager about stress and anxiety.
“As more people have moved remote, organizations have begun to realize that they need to support employees and understand how well their support is working,” says Jo Aggarwal, CEO of Wysa, an AI-driven behavioral health platform. “And I think traditional forms of mental health support aren’t able to do that.”
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Globally, an estimated 264 million people suffer from depression, one of the leading causes of disability, with many of these people also suffering from symptoms of anxiety, according to the World Health Organization. Left unchecked, it can cost the economy $1 trillion per year in loss of productivity.
But while 70% of employees have felt more stress and anxiety at work this year than any other previous year, according to the Oracle report, not every employee is in need of traditional mental health options like therapy or psychiatric evaluations. In reality, over half of employees struggling with their mental health are in a “language middle,” which means they need more than a meditation app but less than medical intervention, says Aggarwal.
Which is where AI can come in.
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“We all want to feel heard, but we don't want to feel seen in that state,” Aggarwal says. “AI handles that really well because it's like interactive journaling — it does give [employees] that [anonymous] validation and guide them towards the right therapeutic path.”
AI can also simplify and streamline the search for the right treatment, and guide employees through the process. The technology can be used to find options, be it traditional mental health options, an EAP or telehealth, and then review it with the user to find the most personalized care for them.
At Wysa, the app provides an anonymous AI-driven chat that allows users to talk out their symptoms and their feelings while providing clinical validation — which is the process of determining the severity of symptoms — in order to tailor its treatment approach.
“[With AI], employees can be engaged both in building habits on a day-to-day basis or being supported on days they're feeling nervous, while also integrating all the different things that the organization already has,” Aggarwal says. “It integrates everything and people finally have a pathway or the right people get the right support.”
