Tripp, the award-winning XR wellness firm, launched Kōkua AI, a psychological wellness information designed to ship real-time, personalised emotional help throughout a number of platforms.
Named after the Hawaiian phrase for “selfless care,” Kōkua AI leverages years of temper and emotional state knowledge from Tripp’s platform—over 23 million emotional inputs throughout TRIPP’s world wellness periods—to supply individualized, adaptive help.
Kōkua makes use of AI not simply to talk, however to know, replicate, and reply in significant methods, personalised to every person’s distinctive wants and way of thinking. It’s accessible throughout cell, immersive, and voice-based experiences, mentioned Nanea Reeves, CEO of Tripp, in an interview with GamesBeat.
“We’ve been evolving Kōkua AI over time, and we see it as an enormous differentiator for Tripp,” Reeves mentioned. “We see ourselves as a layered method to wellness and we’re there for you on any machine.”
Why Kōkua issues now
The general public launch of Kōkua comes at a pivotal second, Reeves mentioned. A rising physique of analysis has affirmed the facility of digital applied sciences—significantly AI-driven chatbots, VR, and AR platforms—to increase entry to psychological well being help and enhance outcomes:
Digital Actuality (VR) and AI have proven medical advantages in lowering signs associated to anxiousness, melancholy, PTSD, and phobias. VR immerses customers in secure, therapeutic environments and enhances emotional regulation (Nature, 2024).
AI-powered chatbots are more and more used for temper monitoring, cognitive-behavioral remedy, and suicide prevention help. Customers admire their 24/7 availability, lack of judgment, and ease of use (JMIR, 2017).
• A current NEJM AI examine (2024) highlighted how autonomous AI psychological well being assistants can ship personalised interventions utilizing pure language processing and voice evaluation, creating participating and efficient person experiences.
• 80% of Individuals consider AI can enhance healthcare high quality and entry, and 25% favor suppliers who combine AI—highlighting the general public’s rising openness to AI in wellness and healthcare contexts (Tebra Well being Notion Examine, 2024).
Kōkua AI Function Highlights
• Voice Avatars with Cloning: With a brand new AI voice library that features over 20 voices, Kōkua has additionally been enabled with Personalised Voice Cloning. Customers can hear their very own voice ship personalised wellness steerage and affirmations.
• AI-Powered Reflections: Guided psychological wellness check-ins and interactive teaching powered by TRIPP’s proprietary Kōkua Core engine.
• Picture Technology: Actual-time visualizations primarily based on person temper and conversational context.
• Immersive Worlds: Breathtaking 3D environments and binaural soundscapes tuned to help calm and focus.
• Direct Dial Entry (Coming Quickly): Psychological wellness help by way of telephone—accessible to all, with or with no headset.
• Gamified Dialogue: A conversational “volley” system encourages sustained, participating interplay.
Optimistic outcomes from Kōkua
Since its beta launch on cell and digital actuality in 2024, Kōkua has doubled session engagement (+100%); had long run retention with 45%+ of premium month-to-month energetic customers utilizing the app for 12+ months; was named Finest Innovation of 2025 by the Aurea Awards and Finest in Spatial Computing on Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional; amassed over 2.6 million in-app 5-star scores, which were used to coach Kōkua AI; and Tripp is the most-reviewed mindfulness app on Meta Quest units.
Constructed on basis of innovation and belief
Kōkua AI is powered by Tripp’s patented temper detection and personalization platform, which dynamically adjusts wellness experiences primarily based on temper surveys, respiratory patterns, and real-time dialog movement. The platform makes use of a novel atomic voice supply technique for responsiveness, and ensures person management with built-in instruments to cancel, alter, or right enter mid-session—important for belief in psychological wellness functions.
“No path to wellness is similar. With Kōkua, we’re creating emotionally clever instruments that adapt to you—in your voice, in your phrases,” mentioned Reeves. “We’re honored that our neighborhood has helped form this highly effective platform from the within out by means of the sharing of their emotions with us in our apps.”
“Tripp has all the time anticipated the place AI was going,” mentioned Tim Chang, enterprise associate at Mayfield Fund, in a press release. “Kōkua is the end result of years of intentional, moral growth within the service of psychological wellness.”
Availability
Kōkua is now accessible by way of the Tripp cell app (iOS & Android), Meta Quest, Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, HTC Stream, PlayStation VR, Pico and is increasing to Android XR and extra platforms together with smartglasses and AR.
Evolving options
Kōkua AI has some hidden options that Tripp places on the market for customers to come across and use earlier than Tripp amplifies them. The corporate has expanded its voice library for Kōkua AI so it has 21 totally different voices which you could change the AI’s voice to, together with ASMR. There are three ASMR whisper voices which were a high request from customers for a very long time.
Reeves unhappy that there’s some analysis that reveals there are neural results while you hear your individual voice for self emotional regulation. It prompts the mind’s self-referential areas, Reeves mentioned.
“It makes constructive messages really feel extra private and plausible and impactful, despite the fact that most of us have a preliminary response to listening to our personal voice,” Reeves mentioned.
So Tripp created the power to clone your voice within the app and apply it to the AI. It’s reside on the Meta Quest platform first. Then it is going to make its approach to cell. The cell app may even get real-time imaging.
Kōkua AI presents confidence boosters throughout your day
While you work together with Kōkua AI, you’ll be able to ask it for a confidence booster earlier than an vital assembly. Kokoa AI answered with a motivational voice-based reasurance that described a futuristic cityscape that was meant to remind Reeves of limitless prospects. The AI seeks out the LLM with the most effective response.
“We now have this complete platform that’s tuned round producing AI output, particularly to psychological and emotional wellbeing,” Reeves mentioned. “That’s the principle differential differentiator of what we’re doing.”
Tripp can even generate meditation workouts for the customers. It added guardrails for the AI because the variety of AI brokers has exploded.
Kōkua AI responded to Reeves when she mentioned she was nervous about our interview. The voice of the AI mentioned, “It’s pure to really feel a bit nervous earlier than an interview however do not forget that you’ve acquired this. Take a second to breathe deeply and remind your self of your strengths and the distinctive views you convey. How about visualizing a constructive final result that may generally assist calm the nerves and enhance confidence?”
Reeves additionally requested the AI what it knew about Reeves given its interactions along with her over the weeks. The AI voice of Kōkua AI rattled off numerous issues it knew about Reeves with reassurances about her robust help community round her.
“You possibly can speak to me about something that’s in your thoughts, Nanea,” the AI voice mentioned. “I’m right here to help your emotional wellbeing, whether or not you wish to talk about mindfulness, gratitude, navigating adjustments or anything that’s vital to you.”
Reeves requested the AI to attach her to a specialised AI agent that would assist with a particular emotional subject and it did so. Reeves mentioned Tripp will launch a brand new agent for the beginning of psychological well being consciousness month in Might. A number of brokers might be accessible over time and ultimately it is going to begin monetization.
“We now have not introduced it but, however we’re working with a medical entity to supply the framework for that once we launch,” Reeves mentioned. “There might be a life teaching mode and even a dream evaluation mode, as a result of that’s one in all our high duties. We’ll preserve including modes like frameworks for profession teaching.”
Privateness safety
She famous that younger male customers are expressing some actually huge emotions that possibly they might by no means share with one in all their pals or an grownup, or perhaps a therapist, for concern of feeling judged. On the similar time, she famous that Tripp is being moral about its knowledge assortment in order that it preserves person privateness. Customers can delete details about themselves at any time.
She famous that knowledge storage is “fully decoupled from any personally identifiable data, and we really don’t report the conversations. We retailer summaries of them for our context.” Customers can even decide out of recording information a couple of session if they want.
Extra automation of AI options
The corporate has 25 folks and it has automated plenty of duties in its producting movement utilizing AI. As AI outcomes have gotten higher, the automation has made the corporate extra environment friendly. Now Tripp is producing real-time help for individuals who name in for assist, and it’ll join these folks to human help as wanted.
“It’s been an enchanting journey,” Reeves mentioned. “We’re experimenting with producing 3D real-time movies quickly into the experiences, in addition to 3D objects, and enabling interplay.
“For VR, we’ve achieved so much. I’m fairly assured that we’re the wellness chief in XR, in psychological wellness in our class, because the most-rated mindfulness app on the Quest,” Reeves mentioned. “We had been named greatest in spatial computing as one of many apps on Apple imaginative and prescient Professional. We now have been introduced as an early entry associate with Google on the Android XR platform, and we’re enthusiastic about these upcoming expansions. However to ensure that us to have most attain and actually scale our enterprise, it’s vital that we go into new channels like cell. We see that as a precursor to our means to have the ability to help the sensible glasses and the AR sensible glasses.”
She mentioned Kōkua AI audio is accessible by way of telephone calls, and Tripp can even deploy that characteristic in its cell app. It is possible for you to to take heed to that voice app on the Meta Ray-ban sensible glasses.
“We wish to render the expertise of how you feel in actual time. So our focus for subsequent 12 months might be to start out integrating much more bio alerts, however one of many first ones we’re going to do is the voice sentiment. It’s not what you say. It’s about measuring the standard, and the valence recognized in your voice. Is it stress? Are you expressing pleasure? Happiness?”
Extra benchmarks and future plans
So far as benchmarks go, Reeves mentioned Kōkua AI has been educated on 23 million emotions shared with Tripp that it used as the inspiration for constructing Tripp’s context engine. And the corporate has had had shut to three million downloads on VR.
“Our aim proper now’s to start out scaling into cell and growing our addressable viewers,” Reeves mentioned.
The app is extremely rated, however Reeves needs to get mainstream adoption in the long term.
“We do have a big energetic obligation inhabitants of younger males utilizing our app, and in addition veterans, however I undoubtedly suppose that having the ability to attain extra folks with our feelings with our supportive AI agent is vital,” Reeves mentioned. “I believe the AR sensible glasses might be a tipping level for us. We might be very effectively positioned for that transition with the way in which that we’ve architected our platform and and the way we will help you with simply audio solely and do it in a really distinctive, centered means.”
Tripp can combine its teaching into its audio experiences and visible experiences, that are like soothing music visualizers. Reeves mentioned that persons are importing private photos into the VR app and different elements of the functions. She mentioned that individuals who personalize Tripp can have 400% extra engagement, and 61% can have energetic periods for six months or longer. Reeves mentioned the pace of the AI is getting higher as effectively so customers don’t have to attend so lengthy for responses.
“It’s an actual retention driver,” she mentioned. “We’ll begin launching new brokers and one of many first might be a psychological well being coach. It’s not for changing skilled human help or medical providers. However it could possibly be very useful for that individual late at night time who’s feeling that they should speak to somebody pleasant. That’s actually our aim. We had been very cautious initially once we launched the primary model. We had been testing it. We wish to be considerate about how we method interactions with AI.”
