Enhancing Resilience through AI-Driven Virtual Reality

We introduce AI-enhanced virtual humans to address the shortage of human professionals in mental health. Specifically, we allow for automatically learning and practicing resilience skills by assisting a distressed virtual human, utilizing the established Resilience Plan Intervention (RPI). One hundred participants underwent a brief training session in the RPI and then applied their newly acquired resilience strategies in simulated interactions with a distressed individual, conducted through either VR or traditional roleplaying (non-VR). The results revealed significant enhancements in reported resilience for both groups, accompanied by significant increases in reported levels of cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation, and help-seeking capabilities.