Tripp, the award-winning XR wellness firm, launched Kōkua AI, a psychological wellness information designed to ship real-time, customized emotional assist 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 classes—to supply individualized, adaptive assist.
Kōkua makes use of AI not simply to talk, however to know, mirror, and reply in significant methods, customized to every person’s distinctive wants and mind-set. It’s out there throughout cellular, immersive, and voice-based experiences, stated Nanea Reeves, CEO of Tripp, in an interview with GamesBeat.
“We’ve been evolving Kōkua AI over time, and we see it as a giant differentiator for Tripp,” Reeves stated. “We see ourselves as a layered method to wellness and we’re there for you on any system.”
Why Kōkua issues now
The general public launch of Kōkua comes at a pivotal second, Reeves stated. A rising physique of analysis has affirmed the facility of digital applied sciences—notably AI-driven chatbots, VR, and AR platforms—to develop entry to psychological well being assist 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 assist. Customers respect 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 customized interventions utilizing pure language processing and voice evaluation, creating partaking and efficient person experiences.
• 80% of Individuals imagine 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 customized wellness steerage and affirmations.
• AI-Powered Reflections: Guided psychological wellness check-ins and interactive teaching powered by TRIPP’s proprietary Kōkua Core engine.
• Picture Era: Actual-time visualizations based mostly on person temper and conversational context.
• Immersive Worlds: Breathtaking 3D environments and binaural soundscapes tuned to assist calm and focus.
• Direct Dial Entry (Coming Quickly): Psychological wellness assist through telephone—accessible to all, with or with no headset.
• Gamified Dialogue: A conversational “volley” system encourages sustained, partaking interplay.
Constructive outcomes from Kōkua
Since its beta launch on cellular 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 Greatest Innovation of 2025 by the Aurea Awards and Greatest in Spatial Computing on Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional; amassed over 2.6 million in-app 5-star rankings, which were used to coach Kōkua AI; and Tripp is the most-reviewed mindfulness app on Meta Quest gadgets.
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 based mostly on temper surveys, respiration patterns, and real-time dialog movement. The platform makes use of a novel atomic voice supply methodology for responsiveness, and ensures person management with built-in instruments to cancel, modify, or appropriate enter mid-session—crucial for belief in psychological wellness functions.
“No path to wellness is identical. With Kōkua, we’re creating emotionally clever instruments that adapt to you—in your voice, in your phrases,” stated Reeves. “We’re honored that our neighborhood has helped form this highly effective platform from the within out by way of the sharing of their emotions with us in our apps.”
“Tripp has at all times anticipated the place AI was going,” stated Tim Chang, enterprise companion at Mayfield Fund, in an announcement. “Kōkua is the fruits of years of intentional, moral improvement within the service of psychological wellness.”
Availability
Kōkua is now out there through the Tripp cellular app (iOS & Android), Meta Quest, Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, HTC Circulation, 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 completely different voices you can change the AI’s voice to, together with ASMR. There are three ASMR whisper voices which were a prime request from customers for a very long time.
Reeves unhappy that there’s some research that reveals there are neural results once you hear your personal voice for self emotional regulation. It prompts the mind’s self-referential areas, Reeves stated.
“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 stated.
So Tripp created the flexibility 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 cellular. The cellular app may even get real-time imaging.
Kōkua AI affords confidence boosters throughout your day
If you work together with Kōkua AI, you may 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 potentialities. The AI seeks out the LLM with the most effective response.
“We have now this complete platform that’s tuned round producing AI output, particularly to psychological and emotional wellbeing,” Reeves stated. “That’s the principle differential differentiator of what we’re doing.”
Tripp may 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 stated she was nervous about our interview. The voice of the AI stated, “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 deliver. How about visualizing a constructive final result that may typically assist calm the nerves and increase confidence?”
Reeves additionally requested the AI what it knew about Reeves given its interactions together with her over the weeks. The AI voice of Kōkua AI rattled off quite a lot of issues it knew about Reeves with reassurances about her sturdy assist community round her.
“You may speak to me about something that’s in your thoughts, Nanea,” the AI voice stated. “I’m right here to assist your emotional wellbeing, whether or not you wish to focus on mindfulness, gratitude, navigating adjustments or anything that’s vital to you.”
Reeves requested the AI to attach her to a specialised AI agent that might assist with a selected emotional difficulty and it did so. Reeves stated Tripp will launch a brand new agent for the beginning of psychological well being consciousness month in Could. A number of brokers can be out there over time and ultimately it is going to begin monetization.
“We have now not introduced it but, however we’re working with a medical entity to offer the framework for that after we launch,” Reeves stated. “There can be a life teaching mode and even a dream evaluation mode, as a result of that’s one among our prime duties. We’ll maintain including modes like frameworks for profession teaching.”
Privateness safety
She famous that younger male customers are expressing some actually huge emotions that possibly they’d by no means share with one among their associates or an grownup, or perhaps a therapist, for worry 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 info, and we truly don’t file the conversations. We retailer summaries of them for our context.” Customers may decide out of recording data a couple of session if they need.
Extra automation of AI options
The corporate has 25 individuals and it has automated quite a lot 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 assist for individuals who name in for assist, and it’ll join these individuals to human assist as wanted.
“It’s been an enchanting journey,” Reeves stated. “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 loads. 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 stated. “We have been named finest in spatial computing as one of many apps on Apple imaginative and prescient Professional. We have now been introduced as an early entry companion 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 cellular. We see that as a precursor to our capacity to have the ability to assist the good glasses and the AR good glasses.”
She stated Kōkua AI audio is offered through telephone calls, and Tripp may deploy that function in its cellular app. It is possible for you to to take heed to that voice app on the Meta Ray-ban good glasses.
“We wish to render the expertise of how you’re feeling in actual time. So our focus for subsequent yr can be to start out integrating much more bio indicators, 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 stated Kōkua AI has been skilled 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 objective proper now could be to start out scaling into cellular and rising our addressable viewers,” Reeves stated.
The app is extremely rated, however Reeves desires 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 positively assume that with the ability to attain extra individuals with our feelings with our supportive AI agent is vital,” Reeves stated. “I believe the AR good glasses can be a tipping level for us. We can be very effectively positioned for that transition with the way in which that we’ve architected our platform and and the way we will assist you with simply audio solely and do it in a really distinctive, centered approach.”
Tripp can combine its teaching into its audio experiences and visible experiences, that are like soothing music visualizers. Reeves stated that individuals are importing private pictures into the VR app and different elements of the functions. She stated that individuals who personalize Tripp could have 400% extra engagement, and 61% could have energetic classes for six months or longer. Reeves stated 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 stated. “We’ll begin launching new brokers and one of many first can be a psychological well being coach. It’s not for changing skilled human assist or medical providers. Nevertheless it could possibly be very useful for that particular person late at night time who’s feeling that they should speak to somebody pleasant. That’s actually our objective. We have been very cautious initially after we launched the primary model. We have been testing it. We wish to be considerate about how we method interactions with AI.”
