Mental health challenges are increasingly recognized as a critical global concern, with rising demand for accessible and personalized support systems. Traditional digital mental health platforms, including chatbots and self-help applications, have provided valuable assistance but often lack integrated emotional understanding, multi-modal interaction, and holistic well-being tools. This survey paper reviews existing research on AI-powered mental health technologies, highlighting their strengths and limitations in areas such as emotion recognition, conversational support, and self-care applications. Building on these insights, we present Emotica AI, a conceptual framework for an intelligent web-based platform that combines emotion-aware interaction, mental health assessments, an empathetic chatbot, and a suite of supportive mini-apps such as mood tracking, journaling, and guided meditation. Additionally, the platform emphasizes community engagement to foster peer support and continuous improvement. By bridging current research gaps, Emotica AI aims to provide a comprehensive, user-centric approach to mental well-being and offers new directions for integrating artificial intelligence into digital mental health care.
Singh et al. (2025) studied this question.