Introducing Yara, the always-on AI companion revolutionizing mental wellness support. Leveraging cutting-edge language models and evidence-based techniques, Yara offers empathic, contextually aware assistance 24/7, helping users navigate life’s challenges and grow beyond them.
For healthcare practitioners, Yara is an invaluable tool to extend support beyond sessions. By providing continuous guidance, intelligent insights, and proactive support, Yara helps optimize resources and improve outcomes. Its AI-powered insights integrate seamlessly with existing practices, enhancing the effectiveness of personalized support at scale.
Our Core Technology
Empathic AI
Leveraging state-of-the-art LLM technology to provide deeply attentive therapeutic interactions and support.
Therapeutic Alliance
Advanced context retention and retrieval for personalized, continuous care across multiple sessions.
Safety By Design
Robust security measures, crisis detection algorithms, and seamless integration with existing clinical workflows.
Our Mission
At Yara AI, we’re on a mission to make high-quality mental wellness support radically accessible. As a team of AI experts and wellness professionals, we’re developing an AI-powered platform that enables practitioners to deliver personalized, evidence-based support at unprecedented scale.
We’re committed to rigorous validation and ongoing research to ensure our technology meets the highest standards of safety and efficacy. Our goal is to augment and empower mental wellness professionals, not replace them, creating a future where quality mental wellness support is available to all who need it.
Yara is a tribute to Joe's late best man, who taught him the transformative power of vulnerability, positivity, and being a courageous friend in the face of life's challenges. Carrying forward this legacy, we’re harnessing cutting-edge AI to scale evidence-based, emotionally attentive support to all.
Joe Braidwood
Co-founder & CEO
A visionary in applied AI, Joe has been at the forefront of machine learning innovation for over a decade. As a founding team member of SwiftKey in 2009, he was among the first to harness natural language models to revolutionize mobile typing. Joe scaled the groundbreaking AI to over 300M users, leading to a $250M acquisition by Microsoft in 2016.
Building on this pioneering work, Joe went on to drive the transformation of healthcare as Chief Strategy Officer at Vektor Medical. There, he spearheaded 5x growth of their AI-powered cardiac care platform, demonstrating the immense potential of machine learning in clinical settings.
Now, as Co-Founder and CEO of Yara AI, Joe is uniting his expertise in generative AI and digital health to make emotionally intelligent support universally accessible. Driven by a lifelong mission to destigmatize mental health, he is harnessing advanced language models to provide a judgment-free space for self-discovery and emotional resilience.
Dr. Richard Stott
Co-founder & Chief Clinical Officer
A trailblazer in digital mental health, Dr. Richard Stott has reshaped the landscape of psychological care delivery through innovative technology. His journey began at Cambridge, where he studied mathematics before specializing in clinical psychology, driven by a passion for transforming mental health access.
As UK Clinical Lead at Big Health, Richard spearheaded the development and NHS adoption of software-guided programs for insomnia and anxiety. His research has validated digital interventions for depression, anxiety, and trauma.
Now, as Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer at Yara AI, Richard is uniting his expertise in clinical psychology and AI to architect a new paradigm of emotionally intelligent support. By embedding psychological science into language models, he ensures every Yara interaction is clinically grounded and uniquely attuned.
Alongside his role at Yara, Richard is a sought-after thought leader, shaping the global conversation on AI's potential to revolutionize mental health care.