Limbic, a maker of clinical AI tools for mental healthcare, is rolling out a new voice AI agent to help connect patients to behavioral health services, Fierce Healthcare has learned in an exclusive.
The tool, Limbic Intake Agent, will be rolling out over the next few weeks to several of the company's U.S. partners. These include health systems, community mental health centers, CCBHCs, telehealth companies and nonprofit behavioral health providers such as Rogers Behavioral Health. It will initially focus on overflow and answer calls when an existing center’s lines are busy or closed.
The AI responds to patients in real time and can field an unlimited number of calls, freeing up overburdened staff. Its name can be customized to align with a provider's brand, but it will always introduce itself as an AI. It will walk a caller through any questions they have related to seeking care. After the initial intake, another tool, Limbic Access, will complete a full clinical mental health assessment via text-based AI chat. Limbic Intake Agent will be available 24/7, and the company hopes to expand it to languages besides English in the future.
Limbic began in the U.K. and was the first and only AI chatbot to earn Class IIa medical device status, considered to be low- to medium-risk, the company claims. The software is used in more than 40% of NHS talk therapy services.
Limbic has expanded to 13 states over the past nine months with Limbic Access. The tool combines predictive clinical AI with language modeling to determine the best care pathway. Limbic helps streamline the care journey, from intake to triage and scheduling to in-treatment support.
“We’ve been really humbled by the reception we’ve received from the U.S. care provider community,” Limbic CEO Ross Harper told Fierce Healthcare.
Phone calls remain a popular entry point into care, according to Harper. The idea behind the latest intake tool is to answer every call that comes into an organization and prevent people seeking care from falling through the cracks. “We wanted to try and deliver the same results that we’d already been delivering through text in a different setting,” Harper said. “Limbic can be there when the staff aren’t.”
Another benefit to having an AI tool answer incoming calls is that if there are changes to any clinical programming, the AI will automatically be updated to reflect the changes and immediately direct patients to the correct new care pathway. Limbic Intake Agent is also “infinitely scalable, never has a bad day, available 24/7 and can be used at a fraction of the cost [of staff].”
Another product is Limbic Care, a generative-AI-powered therapy companion delivering cognitive behavioral therapy programming based on a personalized treatment plan created by a clinician. A recent peer-reviewed, real-world study compared the AI tool’s performance to standard CBT exercises. Across five NHS sites, the study found Limbic Care outperformed standard exercises when combined with human-led group therapy. It saw greater attendance at therapy sessions and fewer dropouts from treatment, and it generated an estimated 228 pounds sterling of additional value per patient.
Harper has been pleased to see that Limbic’s UK data have been taken seriously in the U.S.: “We found that our clinical evidence … the accreditations, even if they're from Europe, have really, really helped provide reassurance to these enterprise provider organizations,” Harper said.