Tripp, the award-winning XR wellness firm, launched Kōkua AI, a psychological wellness information designed to ship real-time, personalised emotional assist throughout a number of platforms.
Named after the Hawaiian phrase for “selfless care,” Kōkua AI leverages years of temper and emotional state information 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, replicate, and reply in significant methods, personalised to every person’s distinctive wants and way of thinking. It’s obtainable throughout cell, 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 strategy to wellness and we’re there for you on any gadget.”
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 ability of digital applied sciences—significantly AI-driven chatbots, VR, and AR platforms—to broaden entry to psychological well being assist and enhance outcomes:
Digital Actuality (VR) and AI have proven medical advantages in decreasing signs associated to nervousness, despair, PTSD, and phobias. VR immerses customers in protected, 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 latest 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 People 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 Customized 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 assist calm and focus.
• Direct Dial Entry (Coming Quickly): Psychological wellness assist through telephone—accessible to all, with or with out a 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 lively 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 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 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, modify, or right enter mid-session—essential for belief in psychological wellness purposes.
“No path to wellness is similar. 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 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 end result of years of intentional, moral improvement within the service of psychological wellness.”
Availability
Kōkua is now obtainable through the Tripp cell 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 upon and use earlier than Tripp amplifies them. The corporate has expanded its voice library for Kōkua AI so it has 21 completely different voices that you would be able to 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 exhibits there are neural results if you hear your personal voice for self emotional regulation. It prompts the mind’s self-referential areas, Reeves stated.
“It makes optimistic messages really feel extra private and plausible and impactful, though 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 stay on the Meta Quest platform first. Then it should make its technique to cell. The cell app can even get real-time imaging.
Kōkua AI presents confidence boosters throughout your day
Whenever you work together with Kōkua AI, you possibly can ask it for a confidence booster earlier than an necessary 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 very best response.
“We’ve this entire platform that’s tuned round producing AI output, particularly to psychological and emotional effectively being,” Reeves stated. “That’s the primary 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 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 received this. Take a second to breathe deeply and remind your self of your strengths and the distinctive views you deliver. How about visualizing a optimistic 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 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 robust assist community round her.
“You may discuss to me about something that’s in your thoughts, Nanea,” the AI voice stated. “I’m right here to assist your emotional effectively being, whether or not you wish to focus on mindfulness, gratitude, navigating modifications or anything that’s necessary 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 stated Tripp will launch a brand new agent for the beginning of psychological well being consciousness month in Could. A number of brokers will likely be obtainable over time and ultimately it should begin monetization.
“We’ve not introduced it but, however we’re working with a medical entity to offer the framework for that after we launch,” Reeves stated. “There will likely 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 hold including modes like frameworks for profession teaching.”
Privateness safety
She famous that younger male customers are expressing some actually massive emotions that perhaps they’d by no means share with one in all their associates or an grownup, or perhaps a therapist, for concern of feeling judged. On the identical time, she famous that Tripp is being moral about its information assortment in order that it preserves person privateness. Customers can delete details about themselves at any time.
She famous that information storage is “utterly decoupled from any personally identifiable info, and we truly don’t report the conversations. We retailer summaries of them for our context.” Customers can even choose out of recording information a few session if they want.
Extra automation of AI options
The corporate has 25 folks and it has automated numerous 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 folks to human assist as wanted.
“It’s been a captivating 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 lots. 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 had been named greatest in spatial computing as one of many apps on Apple imaginative and prescient Professional. We’ve 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 necessary that we go into new channels like cell. We see that as a precursor to our potential to have the ability to assist the good glasses and the AR good glasses.”
She stated Kōkua AI audio is on the market through telephone calls, and Tripp can even deploy that function in its cell 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 feel in actual time. So our focus for subsequent yr will likely be to begin 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 muse for constructing Tripp’s context engine. And the corporate has had had shut to three million downloads on VR.
“Our purpose proper now could be to begin scaling into cell and rising our addressable viewers,” Reeves stated.
The app is extremely rated, however Reeves needs to get mainstream adoption in th elong run.
“We do have a big lively responsibility 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 necessary,” Reeves stated. “I feel the AR good glasses will likely be a tipping level for us. We will likely 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 and do it in a really distinctive, targeted 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 photos into the VR app and different elements of the purposes. She stated that individuals who personalize Tripp may have 400% extra engagement, and 61% may have lively classes for six months or longer. Reeves stated the velocity 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 will likely be a psychological well being coach. It’s not for changing skilled human assist or medical companies. But it surely might be very useful for that particular person late at evening who’s feeling that they should discuss to somebody pleasant. That’s actually our purpose. We had been very cautious initially after we launched the primary model. We had been testing it. We wish to be considerate about how we strategy interactions with AI.”
