Combining AI and human support in mental health: a digital intervention with comparable effectiveness to human-delivered care

Mental health issues are on the rise globally. Cognitive Behavioural Therapies (CBT) can improve the lives of people with anxiety and depression. However, because there aren’t enough therapists available, many people struggle to get the high-quality care they need. The escalating global demand for mental health services exceeds existing clinical capacity. Scalable digital solutions will be essential to expand access to high-quality mental healthcare. 

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a digital intervention to alleviate mild, moderate and severe symptoms of generalized anxiety. This structured, evidence-based program was designed to maximize engagement and effectiveness by combining an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven conversational agent to deliver content with human clinical oversight and user support. 

The digital intervention was compared to three propensity-matched real-world patient comparator groups: 1) waiting control; 2) face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT); and 3) remote typed-CBT. Endpoints for effectiveness, engagement, acceptability, and safety were collected before, during and after the intervention, and at one-month follow-up.

Participants (n=299) used the program for a median of 6 hours over 53 days. There was a large clinically meaningful reduction in anxiety symptoms for the intervention group (per-protocol (n=169): change on GAD-7 = -7.4, d = 1.6; intention-to-treat (n=299): change GAD-7 = -5.4, d = 1.1) that was statistically superior to the waiting control group, non-inferior to human-delivered care, and was sustained at one-month follow-up. 

By combining AI and human support, the digital intervention achieved clinical outcomes comparable to human-delivered care while significantly reducing the required clinician time. 

These findings highlight the immense potential of technology to scale effective evidence-based mental healthcare, address unmet need, and ultimately impact quality of life and economic burden globally.

Read the full paper here.