The CAI Company is working with a team based at King’s College London on a complex conversational AI use case within a therapeutic setting; governance, ethics and language all need to be right.
We spoke to Dr Tom Ward, Clinical Psychologist Lecturer, King’s College London to hear his thoughts on what led them to work with The CAI Company, what the working relationship is like and how the project is going.
1. What was the requirement that led you to The CAI Company?
We are using conversational AI within a therapy tool designed for people who hear distressing voices in the context of psychosis. The tool itself allows people to create a customised avatar to match their main distressing voice. They are then supported through a series of dialogues with the avatar in which the aim is for them to develop an increased sense of power, control and confidence in dealing with the voice.
The requirement is using Conversational AI to automate aspects of the avatar interactions, while maintaining a safe, structured, and therapeutically informed approach.
2. How did you hear about The CAI Company?
Our technical lead was doing some research into conversational agents, NLU (Natural Language Understanding), and intent recognition; a relevant blog post from The CAI Company came up in the search results: Exploring the Potential of LLMs for Intent Recognition.
We were immediately taken by how closely aligned their thinking was to the kind of questions the team had been asking ourselves. We particularly liked that the article was technical and thorough but also approachable, and that it already considered issues like using guardrails to steer the chatbot ‘blackbox’ and keep it focused.
We got in touch and spoke to Darren about their work and ours. It was clear they’d be a great company to work with. Friendly, engaged people who really cared about what they were doing.
3. Why did you decide to work with The CAI Company?
From the outset, we found The CAI Company team to be highly knowledgeable from a technical standpoint while also being warm, approachable, and easy to work with.
While clearly experts in cutting-edge AI technology, they’re particularly skilled at communicating effectively with team members from very different professional backgrounds, with varying levels of familiarity with AI and technical development.
Given the sensitivity and complexity of our clinical context, it was essential to work with a team we trusted to engage thoughtfully and responsibly — and The CAI Company consistently demonstrated this. Working with a UK-based company was helpful as they understood the context of our work e.g. the clinical and service context where the tool will be deployed.
4. What has The CAI Company been working on?
The CAI Company has provided expert consultation in two main areas.
First, they supported us during the procurement phase, advising on processes and principles to help us identify and appoint a suitable software development partner.
Second, and crucially, CAI (and Alice in particular) has provided ongoing expert consultation around the implementation of conversational AI within the tool itself. Alice has taken part in regular meetings with the developers, acting as a valuable bridge between the technical team and our research team to ensure alignment with both clinical goals and technical best practice.
5. What’s it like working with The CAI Company?
Our experience of working with The CAI Company has been excellent. They genuinely feel like an extension of our in‑house team rather than an external consultancy. Their responsiveness, engagement, and willingness to work collaboratively have added significant value to the project, and they have been an absolute pleasure to work with.
In addition to their technical expertise, Alice and Darren are extremely personable and clearly care deeply about the quality and impact of their work. Their strong alignment with our team’s values — particularly around human‑centred design, equity, and inclusivity — has been evident throughout the collaboration and has been especially important given the population we are working with.
6. How does the work done by The CAI Company benefit the King’s College London team?
Although the impact of this work is not easily captured in simple metrics, The CAI Company’s contribution has significantly strengthened our confidence in the technical approach being taken.
Their input has helped us
- make better-informed decisions,
- reduce potential risks,
- and work more efficiently with our development partners.
All of which ultimately supports the delivery of a robust therapeutic tool.
7. Any final thoughts you would like to share with others that have a conversational artificial intelligence project coming up?
We would highly recommend The CAI Company to teams like us working at the intersection of conversational AI and complex human needs.
