AI in PsyCare only plays a supporting role for mental health professionals. It allows for a single platform:

• Secure, encrypted recordings of video sessions that can be reviewed later;
• Take note of what happens in the session;
• Insert markers that could be useful to the therapist to remember something salient that happened during the session;
• Have a sidebar available for real-time emotion detection;
• Have reports and graphs relating to the notes and emotional progress of patients relating to a single session or a certain period of time

This allows the therapist to have various information that can support the diagnostic and therapeutic process, but the AI ​​in PsyCare will never replace the therapist himself.. 

Emotional Artificial Intelligence uses technologies capable of perceiving, analyzing, and interacting with human emotions. But how does it do it? Using advanced methods like deep learning, this AI processes various types of data to interpret emotional states. The most studied method, and the one that offers the most reliable results, is facial expression analysis.

The theoretical model we drew inspiration from is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), developed by psychologist Paul Ekman. This system not only interprets an expression, but breaks it down into Action Units (AU), the individual muscle movements that compose it. The validity of this approach lies in its universality: Action Units are recognized worldwide, regardless of culture. This allows us to have a real-time, objective measure of primary emotions, providing professionals with an additional tool to enrich their analysis.. 

AI can be useful for tracking various patient data and information within a single platform to monitor their treatment journey.

No, AI will not make decisions for the therapist or perform diagnostic assessments. It is intended as a tool to support the therapist.. 

As stated during the ECM training course “Between Human and Digital: Artificial Intelligence in Psychological Practice,” organized by CNOP and available online from August 20 to December 31, 2025, psychologists and psychotherapists could have new job opportunities:

• Psychologists specializing in digital addiction and cyberbullying
• Psychotechnologists (designers of new apps and devices for psychological well-being)
• Psychologists develop video games for positive change
• Virtual psychologists (builders of healing immersive therapeutic settings)
• Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Psychologists (Chatbot and GPT Builders)
• Digital Therapy Psychologists (Transformative Algorithm Engineers)
• Hybrid human-artificial work psychologists
• Psychologists, researchers and ethical-neuroscientific validators of emerging technologies
• For psychologists and psychotherapists: 4th generation psychotherapies will integrate psytech software and hardware.

The ECM training course “Between Human and Digital: Artificial Intelligence in Psychological Practice,” organized by CNOP, highlighted some key skills for mental health professionals entering the world of AI:

• Knowing how to navigate complexity, learning to select, interpret, and combine information generated by AI systems, developing advanced metacognitive skills.
• Redefining creativity, which is co-constructed with AI. Professionals will have to filter the infinite possibilities offered by generative systems to those that are consistent with their own vision. In this sense, creativity remains inherently human, endowed with sensitivity and affectivity.
• Learning to think with AI, developing a new cognitive skill, while preserving one’s agency and intellectual autonomy, while still allowing oneself to be supported by these new tools.

Mental health professionals cannot be replaced by AI technologies used without supervision as they have some limitations:

• Algorithmic and cultural biases, mainly dictated by the statistical methods on which they are based.
• Algorithmic opacity: AI systems are trained on vast data sets that inevitably reflect the historical, cultural, and contextual biases of the reality from which they are drawn.. 
• Excessive compliance, while the job of psychologists/psychotherapists, at times, is also to put the patient/client in a position that allows him to question himself.

Furthermore, several studies affirm that the therapist’s way of being, expressed by the concept of embodied listening, is particularly helpful to the patient and influenced by the therapist’s theoretical orientation, as well as being rooted in their personal history (Stange Bernhardt I., Nissen-Lie HA & Rabu M., 2020). Therefore, the therapist’s emotional attunement, presence, and authenticity make the difference in the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions, aspects that an AI will never possess, just as it will be unable to conceive of silences, fundamental moments in psychological sessions..

Per concludere, il Centro Studi Investimenti Sociali (CENSIS) indica che psicologi clinici e psicoterapeuti rientrano tra le categorie professionali complementari all’utilizzo dell’IA, ma non sono a rischio sostituzione.