Chatbots could be first responder for mental health issues, but with limits

Speaker: Asst Prof Nur Hani Zainal 28 Oct 2025

Mental health chatbots are a useful tool, but Singapore needs clear standards to ensure safe and effective use, with a hybrid approach that includes humans who can step in when needed. Assistant Professor Nur Hani Zainal, Presidential Young Professor in Clinical Psychology at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at NUS and Director of the Optimising Wellness Lab, weighs in on how such first responder bots can miss distress signals, and hence need to operate within clear lines and hand over to humans when a person's needs exceed the bot's limited scope.

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