Amplifying Impact: A Bold Commitment to Responsible AI
Amplifying Impact: A Bold Commitment to Responsible AI
Instead of asking, “Is AI going to replace my job?” we’re focused on “How should we work with AI for the benefit of patients?”
A new tool for a system under pressure
Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere right now: in headlines, on home screens, and at the center of high-stakes policy debates. At Huntsman Mental Health Institute, it’s something more—a tool with potential to help us meet some of the biggest gaps in mental health care. That belief is echoed at the highest levels of the University of Utah, where President Taylor Randall has named Responsible Artificial Intelligence one of his three presidential priorities as part of the Impact 2030 strategy.
At our institute, we’re approaching this moment with a balance of care and urgency. That means building tools that extend the reach of human care, collaborating across disciplines and state agencies, and asking the right questions now. As the technology evolves, we’ll be ready to use it with the intention and integrity that mental health care requires.
Key points:
- Shifting care earlier through AI-driven detection and prevention
- Using AI to meet rising demand and expand mental health care
IMPACT: Shaping a future where mental health care is more connected, responsive, and supported by thoughtful innovation.
A system at capacity
The demand for mental health care is growing faster than the system can keep up. Across the US, millions of people wait too long for treatment—and in rural or underserved areas, access to care can feel out of reach entirely.
Mental health care needs reinforcements
Sources for mental health care graphic: National Alliance on Mental Illness, General Hospital Psychiatry, and the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.
“We don’t need AI to treat schizophrenia. We need AI to help us care for the 20% of the population with mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression and do more of our paperwork, so that our skilled human providers are freed up to spend more quality time with more complex patients and see them sooner.”
Meeting demand with AI
In many ways, mental health is one of the most natural places to implement AI. Unlike other specialties that rely on imaging or laboratory testing, psychiatric assessment and therapy are still largely language based. Meaning that generative AI tools—trained to process and respond to language—can step into parts of this system with unusual ease.
At our institute, we’re exploring that potential with intention by developing AI tools to identify risk for mental illnesses and crises sooner, intervene earlier to help prevent them, supplement the care for people with milder illnesses, and reduce administrative burden on human providers.
Building better tools for better care
At Huntsman Mental Health Institute, AI is already shaping how we understand risk, extend care, and support the people doing the work. Across labs, clinics, and statewide collaborations, teams are building and testing new tools designed to meet the needs of our communities.
AI is also starting to ease the administrative load behind the scenes. From documentation support to smart triage, these tools give clinicians more time to focus on what only humans can do: provide relational, person-centered care.
“We’re not just trying to build AI tools. We’re conducting fundamental algorithmic work to ensure the tools work, reach patients and the bedside, and make things better.”
AI tools that see what humans can’t
RiskPath Toolkit
An open-source software tool that uses explainable AI (XAI) to identify patients at elevated risk of developing chronic mental or physical conditions, including depression, anxiety, and ADHD.
Project REDUCE
This initiative builds AI models using millions of electronic health records to detect patients at risk for suicide and drug overdose. Detecting patterns that humans can’t easily see opens the door to earlier, more proactive intervention.
Where AI is Headed Next
Mental health care has long been reactive. People tend to seek help when they’re already in crisis. But with the right tools, there’s potential to shift that timeline.
Models like RiskPath, combined with data from wearables and smart algorithms, could help providers spot patterns earlier—before anxiety becomes debilitating, before a teenager spirals into depression, or before a substance use disorder takes hold.
Access is another frontier for AI. Most rural counties in Utah still have no practicing psychiatrists, but according to the National Library of Medicine, 85% of Americans have smartphones. AI tools, like the emotional regulation app under development at our institute, could bring entry-level support to people who might otherwise go without.
AI Innovation at University of Utah Health
“The Translational Research Building will create a collaborative environment where researchers, clinician-scientists, industry, and community partners can work together to develop responsible AI tools that accelerate discoveries and improve mental health care across Utah and beyond.”
Laying the foundation
The future of AI in mental health won’t be built in isolation. It needs the right people, the right partners, and the right environment to take root. This is where our Utah Mental Health Translational Research Building comes in.
Set to open in 2027, this building will bring researchers, clinicians, technologists, and community members under one roof. It will serve as a hub for co-designing tools with providers, testing them in clinical settings, and training the next generation of professionals to use them well.
These research and education programs will help patients, families, and communities understand what AI tools can (and can’t) do.
What we build next matters most
From suicide prevention to early intervention, AI is becoming a real part of how mental health care happens. At Huntsman Mental Health Institute, that momentum is backed by deep research, statewide and national reach, and a clear commitment to human-centered design. With the soon-to-open Translational Research Building, we’re creating space—literally and strategically—for this work to grow.
What comes next will take many kinds of support: researchers, providers, community partners, policymakers, and funding partners all moving toward the same goal.
A Blueprint for Hope
Stories of mental health excellence, inspired by hope