ArticleFrontiers in digital health2025
Exploring user characteristics, motives, and expectations and the therapeutic alliance in the mental health conversational AI Clare®: a baseline study.
Article in Frontiers in digital health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Possible Role and Function of AI Conversational Agents in Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Qualitative Interview Study.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- Review
- Network and machine learning analysis of childhood trauma, mental health, and AI-based emotional support needs in adolescents from underdeveloped regions.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Safety Mechanisms and Risk Mitigation in Generative AI Mental Health Chatbots: A Systematic Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Barriers and Facilitators to the Use of Large Language Model-Based Conversational Agents in Mental Healthcare: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A bridge, not a destination: YouTube viewer perspectives on AI mental health support and human therapy.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- Trauma-informed conversational agents for mental health: understanding user perspectives and experiences.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
This study examined the characteristics, motives, expectations, and attitudes of users interested in artificial intelligence (AI) self-help provided by the bot Clare®, a conversational AI for mental health support, and explored the development of a working alliance. A cross-sectional survey of 527 English-speaking self-referred users revealed high levels of anxiety (69%), depression (59%), severe stress (32%), and loneliness (86%). The participants expressed positive attitudes toward digital mental health solutions, with key motives including avoiding embarrassment (36%) and concerns about appearance in face-to-face consultations (35%). Expectations focused on emotional support (35%) and expressing feelings (32%). A strong working alliance was established within 3-5 days (Working Alliance Inventory-Short Report,
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.