There are between ten and twenty thousand apps for your smartphone and more than forty AI and chat bots that provide mental health support1. Many are cheap and provide instant access to support any time of the day or night. But are they effective?
The current shortage of psychologists and mental health professionals in Australia and New Zealand2 can mean wait times of months, even in cities. Many people face the additional barrier of costs, transport and scheduling.
So while Mental Health ChatBots and Mental Health Applications are affordable and readily accessible, are they any good?
Studies1 that compare the efficacy of working with a human mental health professional with aps and bots show that there are several drawbacks of aps and bots, with some researchers warning of dangers such as people dying by suicide and bots missing important context that can result in worsening users’ mental health.
One problem of artificial mental health support is the very high drop out rate. Only 6% of people using apps and AI chatbots persevere with them compared with 80% of people working with a human mental health professional3. This matters because a good predictor of mental health outcomes is adhering to treatment.
Another problem is that bots miss context which results in them missing important information that affects the value of support and guidance. Human counsellors are more likely to seek important background information that better guides the direction of support4.
Most worrying can be that chat bots miss warning signs of suicide risk or worse, give dangerous suggestions that increase the danger to vulnerable and at risk people.5
Finally, actual improvement of mental health is much smaller than it is when working with a human mental health professional and the improvement doesn’t last beyond a couple of months.4
However, some mental health professionals are using technology to help them to be more efficient and to be able to provide support when they can’t be available in person. There is an increasing range of technologies designed to assist therapists and when they are guided by a human expert they can be very effective. There can still be some difficulties gaining and keeping engagement.6
In summary, it is better to engage with a human mental health professional, even if they use technology to assist. You can access a real human mental health professional in person, by video link or by telephone through your EAP.
Call 1800 629 277 in Australia or 0800 327 669 in New Zealand.
Or email support@akg.com.au.
- Ni Y, Jia F. A Scoping Review of AI-Driven Digital Interventions in Mental Health Care: Mapping Applications Across Screening, Support, Monitoring, Prevention, and Clinical Education. Healthcare (Basel). 2025 May 21;13(10):1205. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13101205. PMID: 40428041; PMCID: PMC12110772.
- national-report-card-2024_0.pdf
- Leichsenring F, Sarrar L, Steinert C. Drop-outs in psychotherapy: a change of perspective. World Psychiatry. 2019 Feb;18(1):32-33. doi: 10.1002/wps.20588. PMID: 30600632; PMCID: PMC6313227.
- Ying Lau , Wei How Darryl Ang, Wen Wei Ang , Patrick Cheong-Iao Pang , Sai Ho Wong, and Kin Sun Chan (2025). Artificial Intelligence–Based Psychotherapeutic Intervention on Psychological Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression. Wiley, Depression and Anxiety, Article ID 8930012, https://doi.org/10.1155/da/8930012
- Ostermann, M., Freyer, O., Verhees, F. G., Kather, J. N., & Gilbert, S. (2025). If a therapy bot walks like a duck and talks like a duck then it is a medically regulated duck. NPJ Digital Medicine, 8(1), 741. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-025-02175-z
- Palmer, C. E., Marshall, E., Millgate, E., Graham, W., Ewbank, M., Cooper, E., Blackwell, A. D. (2025). Combining artificial intelligence and human support in mental health: Digital intervention with comparable effectiveness to human-delivered care. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27 doi:https://doi.org/10.2196/69351
