Emotion AI in Mental Healthcare : How can affective computing enhance mental healthcare for young adults?

Abstract: There has been a stigma attached to mental health for years, with many people afraid to seek help from mental health professionals due to negative stereotypes about those seeking help. Young adults in particular are still reluctant in regards to seeing a therapist since they are ashamed, do not want to show weakness or they perceive their need for therapy as low. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered many mental disorders of different kinds, numerous therapists have been fully booked, and the demand has been higher than the supply. Digital mental health apps aim to counteract the problem and help as many people as possible who either cannot get appointments with therapists or are not able to afford therapy sessions. The latest technologies, such as emotion-based Artificial Intelligence (Emotion AI), utilize many data sets and algorithms, which enable the system to learn and interpret human emotions through various verbal and non-verbal signals like voice recognition, text analysis, or face tracking. At the same time, the apps work as digital therapists who aim to help the user.  This research explores how emotion-based AI as a technology used in mental health applications can contribute to help young adults ranging from around 15 to 30 years of age, who are considered the age group suffering from symptoms of depression the most, but hesitate to see a therapist. By conducting a comparative study and quality assessment of three AIbased mental health apps and interviewing experts in Machine Learning and psychology on their points of view, this research project aims to gain qualitative data and, consequently, to obtain more insights on this topic. This research indicates that a complete replacement of face-to-face therapy is not yet imaginable because the human factor is considered inevitable in a therapy setting. However, most experts interviewed for this research stated that AI-based apps in mental healthcare can be seen as an additional supportive tool or coach on the side while seeing an actual therapist in face-to-face-sessions, either in person or through video calls, providing helpful content and exercises. In addition, these tools can bridge the waiting time between therapy sessions or function as a preventive solution for young adults.