What happened
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an early value assessment of digital front doors for NHS Talking Therapies on 24 July 2025. Its committee weighed evidence from the companies, an external assessment group and stakeholders. NICE describes the Wysa Digital Referral Assistant as a UKCA Class I AI-supported chatbot that is live in several services. It collects referral data and questionnaire scores, flags people for review by a clinician and sends a report to the service's records. The committee concluded that the evidence supports its use while more evidence is generated over three years, and it judged the risk to be low. Wysa's evidence came from three responses to NICE's requests for information. NICE states that none of these data were comparative or came from published research. Wysa reported that the chatbot saves 16.0 to 21.0 minutes per assessment. The committee found that evidence on time saved was limited and that the net time saved remains uncertain. NICE adds that, on early economic results, the technology could be cost effective even if only a few minutes are saved.
Sources
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Assessment report, by authors with no tie to the system.
The evidence for Limbic Access and Wysa Digital Referral Assistant supports their use in gathering service user information for NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression assessments while further evidence is generated.
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Assessment report, by authors with no tie to the system.
Limbic Access reportedly saves 12.7 minutes (data from a peer-reviewed study) and Wysa DRA reportedly saves between 16.0 and 21.0 minutes (data from the company's response) for each assessment.
Data for Wysa DRA was real-world experience from users reported in 3 Wysa NICE request-for-information responses. None of the data provided was comparative or sourced from published research studies.
Details
AI system
- Workflow
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Services offered the chatbot as a self-referral route through web portals and apps at any hour. The chatbot sent a report and the referral data to the service's electronic health record for review by a healthcare professional.
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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Services keep other referral routes open for people who cannot or will not use a digital service. The company generates the evidence that NICE asked for within the three years that it set.
Entry details
- Sector
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Mental health care access.
- Purpose
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Wysa built the Wysa Digital Referral Assistant to take self-referrals for NHS Talking Therapies and to collect the information that clinicians need before the first assessment.
Not yet checked: model, release, provider, role, configuration, inputs and outputs, autonomy, human oversight, AI contribution, beneficiaries, reach, distribution and access, duration, every measurement question, every money question, ownership and control, dependencies, cross-border connections, geopolitical implications, replication attempts, availability, institutional decision, grounds, action and result, success criterion, every evidence question, observed or intended, alternative assessments, related entries, other identifiers, category mappings.
Cite this record
Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). NICE allows the Wysa referral chatbot in NHS talking therapies (AIBD-0740). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 31 October 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-0740.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 4.0)