User Perception on an Artificial Intelligence Counseling App

Mental health is a serious issue amongst college students in the Republic of Korea. The stigma related to mental health issues renders college students to be reluctant when it comes to seeking help regarding it. Moreover, college students often seek alternative means to rely on rather than in-person counseling sessions due to shortage of time, money, and lack of access to resources. Existing research has revealed that the utilization of technology can be conducive when it comes to alleviating mental health concerns. The development of a mobile application that provides its users with a counseling session via Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be a helpful resource for college students as it could be accessed regardless of the time and location of the students that wish to access the service. This research aims to conduct user research on college students to learn the stigma related to mental health, and to derive implications from the user research to develop a counseling app prototype to serve as a guideline for the development of a counseling app for college students in the Republic of Korea that could potentially be widely used.