Cedar-Sinai Medical Center has developed an AI-powered chatbot entitled Xaia, designed to complement the services of mental health therapists.
Xaia, an artificially intelligent Ally acronym for Extended Reality, is an Apple VisionPro headset application that provides emotional support and conversation therapy to patients.
The chatbot was programmed by Dr. Omer Liran and had research support from Dr. Brennan Spiegel and therapeutic input from clinical psychologist Robert Chernoff in collaboration with technology ventures.
Programmed with hundreds of prompts and scenarios, the app offers patients an immersive therapy experience.
Spiegel said, “She's amazing.” [Xaia] She uses six different forms of artificial intelligence at any time, including her emotional expression. She has experienced over 140 different expressions. It looks like she's watching you, she's very interactive, but she's not human, and it's intentional. ”
According to psychologist Lilan, “Xaia is designed to supplement the services of mental health therapists amid the national shortage of healthcare providers.”
The XAIA app uses hundreds of therapeutic transcripts, including mock sessions made by real experts, to mimic real therapist interactions.
“The application has been used by around 300 patients in various Cedars-Sinai studies, including those tackling chronic pain, alcohol abuse and irritable bowel syndrome,” said Spiegel, director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai.
However, this tool is not covered by insurance, but uses billing codes for virtual reality therapy and digital health services.
Given the growing need for emotional support, digital health startups have begun to incorporate AI into innovation.
According to Digital Health Advisory Firm Rock Health, the AI-powered digital health startup accounted for an estimated $3.9 billion in 2024. Of these, mental health is the highest funded clinical domain, attracting $1.4 billion.
