Alex Frenkel | Kai.ai | How Do You Combine a Human Team and AI to Support Mental Health?
Host: Eyal David · Guest: Alex Frenkel · About the host
Alex Frenkel, a clinical psychologist and co-founder and CEO of Kai.ai, explains why an AI product for emotional support doesn't work on its own: people and organizations won't pay for a chatbot, but they do pay for a hybrid service where a human clinical team runs the intake and tailors the plan, and the AI accompanies users day to day on WhatsApp. After the consumer freemium model failed, Kai made a double pivot: from AI-only to a human+AI service, and from B2C to B2B2C through employers, universities and health providers.
In this episode
- People won't pay for a mental-health chatbot, but organizations pay for a hybrid service: Kai cracked its business model only when it added a human clinical team for intake and plan tailoring, with the AI accompanying users day to day.
- A double pivot driven by data: the consumer freemium model failed (CAC under a dollar, but an LTV that didn't hold up), so Kai moved both from AI-only to a human+AI service and from B2C to B2B2C through employers and organizations.
- Meet users where they already are: a contact on WhatsApp or Discord instead of an app removed the install barrier, fueled viral growth and built a habit of about five messages a day per user.
- A collection of models, not one model: Kai routes between models for sentiment, emotion detection, Hebrew conversation and validating other models, with a human in the loop from day one.
- Trust is built from values-based decisions: the AI never pretends to be a person, the team and AI channels are separate, nobody has access to the conversations, and personal details are disconnected and encrypted.
- A good product person doesn't invent features, they remove them: work well with the team, stay connected to users through data and conversations, and clean out the screens, buttons and steps nobody needs.
Listen to this episode
Episode Description
Alex Frenkel, co-founder of Kai.ai and a former clinical psychologist, talks about building an emotional-support platform that combines a human clinical team with conversational AI. Kai is a proactive contact on WhatsApp (or Discord, Telegram and iMessage) that remembers the user, initiates check-ins and practices tools from the therapeutic world with them. Alex describes viral growth to 80 thousand monthly active users, mostly Gen Z, the wall where the consumer freemium model simply didn't work, and the double pivot to a hybrid service sold to organizations. He explains how they measure success with the WHO-5 index and usage data, why they use a collection of models instead of one, which ethical decisions they made around privacy and separating AI from humans, and how the war brought Kai to Hebrew and to IDF reservists. Finally, he shares what he thinks makes a good product person: not inventing features, but knowing how to remove them.
Chapters
- 0:00 · Intro, what Kai.ai is, and the move to Hebrew after October 7
- 5:32 · Measuring success: WHO-5, engagement and retention
- 11:57 · From clinical psychologist to founder: how Kai started
- 15:32 · Human in the loop and a collection of models instead of one
- 18:03 · B2C growth, Discord, and why Gen Z
- 25:14 · The double pivot: a hybrid service and B2B2C
- 33:39 · Ethics, privacy and separating AI from humans
- 50:37 · Product skills: knowing how to remove features
- 54:56 · Competitors: Headspace, Calm, Woebot and Wysa
- 59:19 · Plans ahead and the vision: beyond crisis, toward personal growth
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps
Selected quotes
“Kai will never, never, ever fake being a person.”
“A lot of what a good product person does is remove features, remove screens, remove buttons, remove steps.”
“Nobody today will buy a chatbot or an app and pay for it at scale, even if it's a few dollars a month.”
Questions & answers
What is Kai.ai?
Kai.ai is an emotional-support platform that combines a human clinical team with conversational AI. Users connect through a link or QR code, go through a short intake with the team, get a personally tailored plan, and Kai accompanies them as a contact on WhatsApp or other messaging platforms with check-ins, exercises and a personal journal.
Why did Kai move from B2C to B2B2C?
The consumer freemium model, like Headspace's, didn't work: even at a few dollars a month people don't pay for a chatbot at scale, and the LTV didn't justify the investment. When Israeli employers asked for support for their employees in Ukraine and funded a service that also included a human team, it became clear organizations are willing to pay for the hybrid model.
How does Kai measure success?
Two main metrics: improvement in mental well-being on the World Health Organization's WHO-5 index (Kai published studies showing about a 30% improvement after four weeks), and actual usage: about five messages a day per user, 30% messaging every day, and double-digit retention even after several months.
How does Kai protect privacy and trust?
The AI never pretends to be a person, and the AI channel and the human team's channel are fully separate. Personal details are disconnected from the conversations, stored separately and encrypted, and nobody, including the CEO and the psychologists, has access to the conversations themselves. The company complies with HIPAA and GDPR and went through a SOC 2 audit.
What does Alex Frenkel think matters most in a product person?
Not inventing features. A good product person knows how to work with the team and keep it motivated, stays connected to users through data and conversations, and, hardest to teach, knows how to remove features, screens, buttons and steps nobody uses.
People & resources mentioned
People
- Alex Frenkel, co-founder and CEO of Kai.ai
- Netanel, co-founder and CTO of Kai.ai
- Ziv, co-founder of Kai.ai, leads operations and product
- Prof. Ronit Shoshani, happiness and resilience researcher
- Anat, chief psychologist at Kai.ai
Companies & orgs
- Kai.ai
- JDC (the Joint)
- Headspace
- Calm
- Woebot
- Wysa
- Optibus
- Microsoft
Tools
- Discord
- Gemini
- WHO-5 (World Health Organization well-being index)
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