Ran Zilca, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Happify Health discusses the significance of technologies such as AI for improving mental health and mindfulness
1. Can you tell us about your role at Happify Health?
One of Happify Health’s core differentiators is the use of advanced AI algorithms in delivering the most engaging and efficacious digital therapeutics interventions – primarily using our digital AI coach, Anna. My team is responsible for developing Anna’s Machine Learning and deep learning algorithms and to create a clinical model of interaction with users. The team comprises data scientists and clinicians working together to make Anna an effective and engaging hunan-like coach – one who listens to users, cares about them, and is curious about them. We are also responsible for anything-algorithmic at Happify, including content recommender systems, predictive analytics, and the signal processing algorithms used in Happify’s Breather biofeedback game.
2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
I went through two major professional transitions in my career. The first one, in 2005 was when I left IBM Research to start my first company, Signal Patterns. We had a joint team of research psychologists and computer scientists, and we developed the first ever intervention app, called Live Happy. The second transition was in 2011, when I was certified in coaching psychology. Both these transitions broadened my professional focus from tech-only to research psychology and its implementation in coaching. In 2013 I started another company called Intrinsic Mobile where we started working on a prototype of a conversational agent we called “Liz”. When I joined Happify in 2015, I’ve already filed for a patent on the “Liz” prototype, so I guess one can say Liz was Anna’s grandmother 
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