Wysa has announced the launch of its conversational AI for mental health in Hindi, which aims to significantly improve access to quality mental health services in underserved communities, particularly in tier 2 and 3 cities across India. The development was co-funded by ACT Grants, British International Investment, and USAID.
The development project underscores the critical need for accessible mental health support, revealing that the top challenges faced by users include anxiety, motivation, stress, relationships, and depression. 90% of users returned to have more than one session with Wysa, of which 30.5% of users sought continuous support. Furthermore, 75% users reported that “using the app was very simple and easy”.
These results reflect the pressing need for mental health solutions. Wysa is addressing these needs by expanding into the Hindi-speaking regions of India. Smart Staff, Azad Foundation, and Royal Rajasthan Foundation are the first three organizations to adopt Wysa Hindi. Smart Staff primarily focuses on blue-collar migrant workers in India, while Azad Foundation and Royal Rajasthan Foundation work to empower women from low-resource communities.
Jo Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO of Wysa commented, “The introduction of the Hindi version is a huge leap towards making quality mental health care affordable and accessible for every individual in India's underserved regions. By leveraging our AI and collaborating with leading partners, we are transforming the landscape of mental health support, one AI conversation at a time.”
Arpit Dave, Co-founder and CEO of Smart Staff added, “Migrant workers face immense challenges, navigating new environments, building new communities, all while often being separated from their families. We're thrilled to partner with Wysa to provide them with 24/7 access to clinically effective mental health support directly on their phones. This partnership has the potential to be a significant step forward in improving the quality of life for our workers.”
“At the Royal Rajasthan Foundation, we are deeply committed to enabling empowered women in the most resource-scarce areas of Rajasthan. Understanding the realities these rural women face daily, we recognize the role of mental resilience in their journey toward overcoming barriers. Wysa's platform offers a unique blend of anonymity, security, and accessibility, making it an ideal solution for the women we serve" noted Dalip Pande, mentor at Royal Rajasthan Foundation.
Rhea Yadav, Director of Strategy and Impact at Wysa pointed out that mental health is still not well understood in India though loneliness is. Given the extremely low levels of mental health awareness and shared vocabulary, the app therefore has psychoeducation built into the onboarding.
“Wysa Hindi is foremost an empathetic friend in everyone's pocket, someone who can listen 24x7, that we've built specifically for the Bharat user. Our aim was not simply to translate Wysa English into Hindi, but to take a human-centred approach, with a renewed user journey and experience,” she claimed.
Through this collaboration, Shrinivas Rao, the national program lead for Azad Foundation hopes to have heightened attention and awareness of the community's mental well-being as the NGO moves the needle on social support and economic empowerment. “Especially for women from low-resource settings, we're keen to offer an anonymous, stigma-free, and private space through Wysa," he said.
Wysa is a provider of AI-driven mental health support, available to individuals directly, through healthcare providers and employer benefits programs. It supports users with the help of an emotionally intelligent conversational agent. The bot uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioural techniques (CBT), meditation, breathing, and mindfulness exercises, as well as micro-actions to help users build mental resilience skills.
The start-up works with 50 enterprise partners and 6.5 million users worldwide, with partners that include Aetna International, Bosch, SwissRe, Travelers, the UK’s NHS and the Ministry of Health in Singapore. For employers, it offers a workplace solution that caters to the full spectrum of mental health needs. It has facilitated over 500 million conversations in 95 countries.
