Transform student well-being with a proactive, evidence-based, data-driven approach—personalized at scale, accessible to all.
Interactive materials to promote mental health awareness and foster a culture of well-being.
Build a culture of emotional awareness and social connection—one pin at a time!
A simple yet powerful way to spread joy. Featured in TIME magazine!
A delightful daily reminder to flourish in every dimension of life.
Research shows that students with the Flourish app reported:
A Two-Week Pilot Study with an AI-powered Mobile App in College Classroom
Qualitative, student-led user interview study.
Collaborating with domain experts, we take rigorous measures to ensure user privacy, data security, and student safety.
Engage different stakeholders to build a culture of well-being.
At Flourish Science, we take a proactive and personalized approach to mental health and well-being, making it personalized, simple, fun, and actionable. Our AI-powered, science-based positive psychology app (think “Duolingo for happiness”) personalizes scientific insights and actions to improve mood, reduce stress, build resilience, and foster meaningful social connections. Through partnerships with universities, we further integrate local resources to supercharge organizational capacities for evidence-based, data-driven mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention.
Flourish Science was founded by psychologists from Stanford and a design leader from Google, and is supported by a scientific advisory board with domain experts from top institutions (e.g., Harvard, UC Berkeley, OpenAI). Our work has been featured in TIME magazine. In a recent RCT study, our app has been shown to enhance college students’ positive emotions with as little as 10 minutes of use each week.
Hundreds of scientific studies in psychology and behavioral sciences, including many authored by our team members and scientific advisors, have demonstrated that people can take simple actions to regulate emotions, cultivate joy, reduce stress and burnout, and build deeper connections in daily life. Sadly, most people struggle to access the right knowledge and actions at the right time, which can lead to a downward spiral in mental health. This is the last mile problem of science — when good research stays locked in academic journals and doesn't reach those who need it most.
There are thousands of mental health, meditation, and self-care apps, and most struggle to demonstrate effectiveness and keep users engaged (see recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education). But the Flourish app is truly unique. Led by a team of scientists, designers, and technologists with decades of experience in building user-centered products, we co-design our app with students to meet students where they are. Our solution has been shown to improve users’ positive emotions and life satisfaction, and has received many positive reviews from both students and psychology faculty.
While Flourish is very much a work in progress as we continue to iterate based on student feedback, our app is unique due to the 4Ps: Practice, Personalization, Peers, and Play.
Simple, engaging, science-based "Flourish Activities" are proven to improve social and emotional well-being within minutes.
Cutting-edge AI (“Sunnie”) recommends the most relevant knowledge and action at the right time given each student’s unique needs and preferences.
Connect with “Flourish Buddies” for insights, inspiration, accountability, and meaningful connections.
Gamification elements such as challenges and badges, accompanied by a cute, heartwarming AI happiness coach (Sunnie), has been shown to enhance enjoyment and motivation.
And we continue to develop innovative features such as seasonal community-wide challenges, personalized school-specific resource recommendations, and a campus ambassador program.
Finally, our beloved physical reminders, such as Flourish stickers and compliment cards, have resonated with students and earned a spotlight in TIME magazine!
The Sunnie AI offers personalized mental wellness support in three key areas:
It is important to note that our AI is not intended to replace human therapists, nor does it possess such capabilities. Its sole purpose is to offer timely support with a low barrier to entry, prevent crises before they escalate, and provide daily inspirations and social support system for more positive actions and deeper connections.
Leveraging AI for human flourishing is a core mission of Flourish. Sunnie is thoughtfully designed by researchers in psychologists and human-robot interaction to follow the STAR framework: Science-based, Timely, Action-Oriented, and Real-life-focused.
Sunnie is grounded in the science of positive psychology, social psychology, neuroscience, and psychotherapy techniques (e.g., CBT and ACT). It translates hundreds of empirical studies and effective interventions into relevant knowledge and practical skills, solving the last-mile problem of making good science accessible. And we are conducting a series of RCT studies to test its effectiveness among various populations and have seen promising pilot results.
Sunnie delivers relevant knowledge and actions at the right time and has the capacity for crisis detection and early intervention. Sunnie leverages an intuitive chat user experience to understand user’s emotions and user’s life circumstances to enable personalized recommendations and just-in-time support.
Taking actions, even small ones, can create positive change. Numerous studies show that simple actions can help people regulate emotions, cultivate joy, reduce stress, and build connections. Instead of focusing solely on “talk therapy,” Sunnie focuses on recommending science-based actions for positive behavioral change.
Many companion AIs aim to become users’ “virtual friends”. Sunnie, however, focuses on helping users develop real-life skills by connecting with themselves (e.g., emotion regulation), others (e.g., social health, conflict resolution), and the world (e.g., finding meaning and purpose), therefore solving the loneliness and mental health crisis rather than exacerbating it.
We hope that Sunnie sets an example for the STAR framework for mental health and human flourishing, showcasing how LLM has the capabilities to create scalable positive outcomes for society and avoid many pitfalls along the way.
Customizing the AI for schools is a straightforward process. Schools simply provide a spreadsheet of relevant resources and services recommended to students, and Sunnie AI will deliver timely and personalized recommendations in the chat based on individual student circumstances that they voluntarily share while chatting with Sunnie.
We have built a toolbox featuring some of the most effective well-being and emotion regulation activities in the app for this purpose.
We will collaborate with you to develop posters, flyers, and other educational and promotional materials that will be LOVED by your students. We are also building a campus ambassador program and would love to work with mental health clubs, school ambassadors, center of teaching and learning, departments, or individuals passionate about mental health at your school to promote mental health awareness and a culture of flourishing. Finally, we regularly collaborate with student services and psychology faculty to offer guest workshops, which both faculty and students have found tremendously useful and inspiring.
We provide a straightforward IT integration solution. Students will be able to use their university emails to receive the premium service of the Flourish app for free.
Get in touch TODAY! Share your goals and needs, and we’ll collaborate with you to create a personalized solution and rollout plan tailored to your campus. We believe in partnership and a co-design process.