Photo: Andrea Piacquadio The emergence of digital mental health interventions has given traditional modes of treatment the ability to be highly scaled for use whenever and wherever the patient chooses. These capabilities pose several advantageous characteristics to in-person therapy, but critics of these technology-based platforms continue to raise concerns over something they lack: a human connection between the provider and patient. A new study examining the effectiveness of one chatbot-based mental health platform, Woebot, suggests that fully automated conversational agents can form similar bonds with users as real-life therapists. TOP-LINE DATA When surveyed using the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR) test to develop a bond score between user and Woebot, the participants’ average scores were consistent to those of traditional modalities for cognitive behavioral therapy delivery.