MLC Life Insurance in Australia is to offer customers AI-guided mental health support, saying it is the first insurer in the world to offer Wysa Assure – an AI-based mental health support app.
The app integrates Swiss Re’s risk expertise and proprietary scoring system, and includes wellbeing scores to quantify mental health status.
MLC Life Insurance says it partnered with Swiss Re Reinsurance Solutions to launch a pilot of Wysa Assure, as half of all Australians will likely to face a mental health related concern.
The firm says that central to the design of Wysa Assure is an AI chatbot, built on cognitive behavioural therapy principles, that “is clinically proven to improve symptoms of depression and anxiety”.
The app integrates self-care modules and “…built-in crisis escalation pathways to human care that can be triggered during AI conversation with the user, or by the user selecting an SOS feature”.
MLC Life Insurance says this approach fosters proactive mental wellbeing management “…and encourages early support-seeking, avoiding worsening symptoms while offering a broader approach to crisis risk mitigation.”
The app is available to MLC Life Insurance retail customers through its Vivo program.