AI Will Revolutionize Mental Health, Generating 2.5 Billion in Spain

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom is also reaching the mental health sector. During the last two years, new start-ups have been appearing in Spain that share the same objective: to create technological solutions that take advantage of this new tool to introduce improvements in this area, both for patients and professionals.

“Artificial intelligence will improve the management of chronic diseases, the effectiveness of treatments, the reduction of side effects and the early detection of pathologies,” summarized Francesc Saigí, an expert in digital health linked to the World Health Organization ( WHO) and professor at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

In the case of mental health, the range of possibilities that Artificial Intelligence can offer the sector is very large. At Dartmouth University, in New Hampshire (United States), a group of scientists has created MoodCapture. It is an application that, using AI, can help detect mental health diseases by analyzing several facial photographs of the patient. The creators assure that it can warn them even before the person themselves realizes that they may be suffering from one.

The use of AI in the field of mental health will move almost $10.3 billion in 2032, according to a report

With proposals like this flourishing in the minds of scientists and entrepreneurs around the world, consulting firms predict great growth in the sector’s business volume. If in 2023 the use of artificial intelligence in the field of mental health generated about $920 million, in 2032 it will move almost $10.3 billion according to the recent study by Polaris Market Research.

The report does not detail the figures for the Spanish market, but, there, Artificial Intelligence is also expected to make a strong impact. In Spain, the application of this technology to the generic health market will have a business volume of 2.5 billion euros in 2030, according to the specialized firm Insights10.

The ecosystem is already boiling

With these good prospects on the horizon, several start-ups focused on finding AI solutions for mental health are appearing in Spain. One of the startups that is getting the most attention is Aimentia. Created in Catalonia, the company has developed technology that facilitates the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of patients with some of the most common mental health disorders: from anxiety and depression to bipolar disorders, phobias or suicidal thoughts.

The result has been translated into a platform that, thanks to Artificial Intelligence, provides tools and services 24 hours a day to primary care centers, schools and companies in countries such as Spain, Argentina, Chile or Mexico. In 2023, it closed a financing round of 500,000 euros.

Aimentia, Eholo, Brain and Joy are some of the Spanish projects that use Artificial Intelligence in the mental health segment

“With the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence, we are definitely entering a new era in mental health, which is characterized by a much more holistic and personalized approach when providing care for mental disorders,” Enric Mourin, CTO and co-founder of Aimentia said.

According to him, one of the most important protagonists of this new era of mental health are chat bots. These are tools prepared to recognize patterns of stress or emotional distress and provide strategies to deal with them immediately. “In fact, it is one of the main technologies provided at Aimentia to alleviate the burden on clinical professionals,” Mourin specified.

However, the application of AI in mental health is still in an early phase . “In the near future we will not replace human interventions with Artificial Intelligence: they continue to be a crucial factor in an area such as mental health, which requires closeness,” the expert clarifies. Even so, the panorama has already begun to change. “Artificial Intelligence can serve as a bridge to reach this emotional help or, at least, as a cushion in these specific moments of stress,” said the entrepreneur.

The Spanish boom

Aimentia is not the only project that is making its way into the sector from Spain. There is also Thera4All , which has developed Brain, a psychological self-assessment solution to determine the need to see a healthcare professional. The user goes to a kind of virtual visit with a metahuman therapist, powered by the Artificial Intelligence ​​engine. The main objective of its founders is to help democratize access to quality mental health for everyone, regardless of their economic level.

Along with Aimentia and There4All, there is another Spanish adventure: that of Eholo. The technology company based at the TecnoCampus of Mataró , in Catalonia, has created a platform focused on psychologists to facilitate the management of administrative tasks. Helps professionals optimize time so they can focus more on patients. In July 2023, it closed a financing round of 200,000 euros , contributed by several SeedRocket business angels .

Apart from applications for the general public and mental health professionals, developers such as the Spanish company Prisma have created Joy Software , a product with Artificial Intelligence aimed specifically at the business segment. “Through a method that measures the organizational climate and the connection with specialized professionals, we help companies prevent common problems such as stress, work overload or dissatisfaction of their collaborators,” explained the company.

Spanish entrepreneurs in the sector are aware of the good prospects for the sector. “We are seeing an increase in the creation of new companies that seek to harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence to address mental health challenges,” corroborates Enric Mourin, co-founder of Aimentia. “The potential is enormous, but there is still a lot of ground to cover,” he warned.

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