How Should We Prompt Engineer Our Health Coach Bots? Stoicism, Epicureanism or Something Else?

Healthcare is among the fastest growing sectors utilizing artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, quality and accessibility to services. In particular, the role bots can play in creating greater access and scalability in mental health services is attracting growing investment along with greater scrutiny. This editorial explores the promises and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence to train chatbots to conduct health coaching services. Although bots can use relevant psychological principles to help with mental health issues, they do not have lived experience. Can age-old philosophical debates help to inform the way health coaching bots are trained and prompted?

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Publication Details

Journal
American Journal of Health Promotion
Published
2026-01-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171261416224
Primary Topic
Digital Mental Health Interventions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

How Should We Prompt Engineer Our Health Coach Bots? Stoicism, Epicureanism or Something Else?

Paul E. Terry
American Journal of Health Promotion
Digital Mental Health Interventions
article

How Should We Prompt Engineer Our Health Coach Bots? Stoicism, Epicureanism or Something Else?

Paul E. Terry
article en

Abstract

Healthcare is among the fastest growing sectors utilizing artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, quality and accessibility to services. In particular, the role bots can play in creating greater access and scalability in mental health services is attracting growing investment along with greater scrutiny. This editorial explores the promises and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence to train chatbots to conduct health coaching services. Although bots can use relevant psychological principles to help with mental health issues, they do not have lived experience. Can age-old philosophical debates help to inform the way health coaching bots are trained and prompted?

American Journal of Health Promotion
Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (US)
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 89%
Digital Mental Health Interventions
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