Google through its artificial intelligence powered virtual assistant has invested in the Indian based mental health start up Wysa. This is was the first investment in Asia made by the fund.
The founder of the startup said that “We’ve been refining what works for us to manage our own mental health over hundreds of iterations, with dozens of clinicians, and over three million Wysa users — all organic,”
BACKGROUND OF GOOGLE ASSISTANT
Incepted in 2016; It is a virtual assistant developed by Google accessible on smartphone & home devices. The company initially had a different assistant with name Google Now ; but this is more efficient as it helps to engage successfully in two side conversations.
500 million users monthly
30 different languages
90 countries
It is coded in C++ and provides the facility to interact in complete natural voice and keyboard inputs according to your wish. As per 2020 figures; the assistant has already made its way to more than 1 billion devices.
ALL ABOUT WYSA
Wysa is an artificial intelligence based assistant set up in 2015 by Jo and Ramakant Vempati ; that proves to be very useful for emotionally challenged people. It gave a sigh of relief to people who were not able to accept the validity of their feelings.
- It gives them the facility of empathetic listening with proper utilisation of techniques like meditation, interviewing, CBT and motivational interviewing.
- There are professional therapists to check you up daily to understand the situation.
- They were able to raise a funding of close to $3.9 million from investors such as Kae Capital & pi ventures.
- It has 3 million users approximately from more than 65 countries across the globe.
- It has been accredited by a 93% rating for ORCHA underlining a 100% assurance on its clinical safety.
- 100 million conversations have been conducted by using more than 100 self care tools at large. It was recommended as the best application for stress elimination during the pandemic.
The aim is to reach 5 million users in a short while a tie up has been made with companies like UK National Health Service (NHS) and various private hospitals who are ready to render their services for the cure of mental health issues at large.
India is a country that has never paid attention or clearly ignored the mental health of its people. This lockdown has made it quite clear that mental is major focus in all types of health. Wysa’s setup was commendable ;So is the step taken by google assistant in backing up India’s global leader in mental health field. This is itself a real addition to India’s reputation to a large extent. We can claim that we are looking not only for sustainability at environment level but also at health levels too.
Google helps people to clear its informational doubts;
Google assistant assists in all sorts of queries;
We need to be get heard and that is what is the motto of this venture.
Therefore a clear combination of basic language and clinical treatment is a must.
Now Wysa; a google assistant backed up venture will help people at times of stress & anxiety.
