Digitizing Mental Health: Entrepreneurial Pathways for AI Chatbots in the Irish Care Ecosystem

Opportunities and Challenges for Future of Digital Mental Health Entrepreneurship

Title (eng)
Digitizing Mental Health: Entrepreneurial Pathways for AI Chatbots in the Irish Care Ecosystem
Opportunities and Challenges for Future of Digital Mental Health Entrepreneurship
Author
Sabira Ataibekova
Author
Shivam Shumsher
Author
Lucy Namakula
Author
David Vuth
Author
Safaa Zaki
Scientific advisor
Liliya Satalkina
Description (eng)
Executive Summary This project was part of the Transdisciplinary Field Research Training (TFRT) in the MSc Transition, Innovation and Sustainability Environments (TISE), equipping future practitioners on sustainable transitions through systems thinking and innovation. TISE is joint master’s by University for Continuing Education Krems (Austria), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), University College Dublin (Ireland), and Poznań University of Economics and Business (Poland). The study explores how digital entrepreneurship can advance AI-powered mental health (DMH) chatbots for youth in Ireland, where rising mental health needs intersect with increasing demand for mental health services. While chatbots offer scalable, stigma-free support, their effective deployment requires ethical design, sustainable business models, and integration into care systems—highlighting the need for implementation science and active stakeholder involvement to navigate this complex landscape. Ireland’s high youth mental health burden and growing digital health sector make it a highly relevant context for examining such innovations. The study used systems and design approaches, engaging stakeholders from academia, industry, and policy to explore the key opportunities and challenges in developing mental health chatbots for youth in Ireland—and how collaboration can drive responsible digital entrepreneurship in this space. In this report, we explore the pathways for digital mental health (DMH) entrepreneurship in Ireland, and in doing so, we address three interrelated questions that shape our understanding of this evolving landscape. Firstly, we examine the current context by identifying key factors influencing the development and implementation of chatbot-based mental health solutions, revealing the structural and contextual dynamics at play. Second, we explore how tensions between emerging opportunities and ongoing challenges could shape future directions, leading to plausible pathways that expose potential risks, trade-offs, and prospects for responsible innovation. Finally, we propose a sustainable transition framework that emphasizes ethical alignment, stakeholder collaboration for the future of DMH in Ireland. In conclusion, mental health chatbots offer scalable, stigma-free support for young people, presenting a promising avenue for addressing gaps in mental health care. However, their success depends on navigating ethical, clinical, regulatory, and business viability challenges. Strong policy frameworks, close collaboration between developers and mental health professionals, and the development of sustainable and viable business models are essential to ensure these tools are safe, effective, and accessible for those who need them most.
Keywords (eng)
Digital mental healthAI-powered chatbotsYouth mental health in IrelandDigital entrepreneurshipAI governance and regulationCausal loop modelingTransdisciplinary innovationEthical AI in healthcare
Type (eng)
report
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:6059
Date issued
2025-04
License
All rights reserved