Improving Well-being With a Mobile Artificial Intelligence–Powered Acceptance Commitment Therapy Tool: Pragmatic Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background Research and dissemination of smartphone apps to deliver coaching and psychological driven intervention had seen a great surge in recent years. Notably, Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) protocols were shown to be uniquely effective in treating symptoms for both depression and anxiety when delivered through smartphone apps. The aim of this study is to expand on that work and test the suitability of artificial intelligence–driven interventions delivered directly through popular texting apps. Objective This study evaluated our hypothesis that using Kai.ai will result in improved well-being. Methods We performed a pragmatic retrospective analysis of 2909 users who used Kai.ai on one of the top messaging apps (iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, etc). Users’ well-being levels were tracked using the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index throughout the engagement with service. A 1-tailed paired samples t test was used to assess well-being levels before and after usage, and hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the change in symptoms over time. Results The median well-being score at the last measurement was higher (median 52) than that at the start of the intervention (median 40), indicating a significant improvement (W=2682927; P<.001). Furthermore, HLM results showed that the improvement in well-being was linearly related to the number of daily messages a user sent (β=.029; t81.36=4; P<.001), as well as the interaction between the number of messages and unique number of days (β=–.0003; t81.36=–2.2; P=.03). Conclusions Mobile-based ACT interventions are effective means to improve individuals’ well-being. Our findings further demonstrate Kai.ai’s great promise in helping individuals improve and maintain high levels of well-being and thus improve their daily lives.