Persol Business Process Design Launches "corocare," a Mental Health Counseling Service Integrating Certified Psychologist Counseling Processes into Conversational AI
Persol Business Process Design will launch "corocare," an AI-powered mental health counseling service that incorporates the counseling processes of certified psychologists, starting April 10, 2026. Available 24/7, it aims to prevent declines in work performance, leaves of absence, and resignations due to mental health issues.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 10, 2026 at 20:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 11, 2026 at 00:26 (4h 26m after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 20, 2026 at 03:43 (219h 16m after Collected)
Persol Business Process Design Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Kazuyuki Ichimura; hereinafter "Persol Business Process Design"), part of the Persol Group with the vision of "Work, and Smile.", will launch "corocare" (hereinafter "this service"), an AI-powered mental health counseling service available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, starting April 10, 2026.
This service is a mental health counseling service where AI, incorporating the counseling processes of certified psychologists, provides support tailored to each individual's concerns. It achieves deep conversations that understand the background of consultation content and respond to context, which was difficult with general AI chats. In addition to the convenience of being able to consult easily anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it provides continuous support based on past consultation history. This contributes to creating an environment where individuals can regularly organize their mental state, preventing declines in work performance, leaves of absence, and resignations due to mental health issues.
After the launch of this service, we plan to expand its functions based on usage data and customer feedback, and promote collaboration with human support, with a view to expanding into the EAP*1 market and industrial physician market. In the future, we aim to strengthen our presence in the entire health management-related market through collaboration with medical institutions and service expansion into physical and nursing care domains.
*1 EAP (Employee Assistance Program): Employee Assistance Program
**■ Background to the Provision of "corocare"**
According to a survey*2 by Persol Research and Consulting, the resignation rate for employees who experienced mental health issues within the past three years reached 25.3% (about 1 in 4 people), and the leave of absence rate reached 20.8% (about 1 in 5 people), indicating that employee mental health issues are a serious management risk for companies. To prevent mental health issues, early consultation when experiencing worries or stress is important. However, while many companies have established consultation services, only 17.6% of people feel they are "easy to use," and the utilization rate of consultation services tends to be low. The background to this includes challenges such as difficulty in making appointments and psychological resistance to consulting with people, mainly due to existing consultation services being human-centered. Furthermore, companies also face the challenge of cost burden due to continuing human-centered support. To solve these problems and create an environment where employees can easily seek early consultation, our company has decided to provide this service.
In addition, our company operates "KATAruru"*3, a service that provides specialized support by certified psychologists in a highly anonymous avatar environment. The AI for this service, which is now being launched, incorporates the counseling processes of our certified psychologists who are responsible for mental health counseling in "KATAruru." This achieves high convenience, being available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no appointment required and immediate use. By offering both human-centered and AI-powered services, our company will build a system that allows companies to choose the optimal consultation environment according to their challenges and needs.
*2 From Persol Research and Consulting's "Quantitative Survey on Mental Health Issues Among Young Employees":
*3 [Link to Persol Research and Consulting survey]
This service is a mental health counseling service where AI, incorporating the counseling processes of certified psychologists, provides support tailored to each individual's concerns. It achieves deep conversations that understand the background of consultation content and respond to context, which was difficult with general AI chats. In addition to the convenience of being able to consult easily anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it provides continuous support based on past consultation history. This contributes to creating an environment where individuals can regularly organize their mental state, preventing declines in work performance, leaves of absence, and resignations due to mental health issues.
After the launch of this service, we plan to expand its functions based on usage data and customer feedback, and promote collaboration with human support, with a view to expanding into the EAP*1 market and industrial physician market. In the future, we aim to strengthen our presence in the entire health management-related market through collaboration with medical institutions and service expansion into physical and nursing care domains.
*1 EAP (Employee Assistance Program): Employee Assistance Program
**■ Background to the Provision of "corocare"**
According to a survey*2 by Persol Research and Consulting, the resignation rate for employees who experienced mental health issues within the past three years reached 25.3% (about 1 in 4 people), and the leave of absence rate reached 20.8% (about 1 in 5 people), indicating that employee mental health issues are a serious management risk for companies. To prevent mental health issues, early consultation when experiencing worries or stress is important. However, while many companies have established consultation services, only 17.6% of people feel they are "easy to use," and the utilization rate of consultation services tends to be low. The background to this includes challenges such as difficulty in making appointments and psychological resistance to consulting with people, mainly due to existing consultation services being human-centered. Furthermore, companies also face the challenge of cost burden due to continuing human-centered support. To solve these problems and create an environment where employees can easily seek early consultation, our company has decided to provide this service.
In addition, our company operates "KATAruru"*3, a service that provides specialized support by certified psychologists in a highly anonymous avatar environment. The AI for this service, which is now being launched, incorporates the counseling processes of our certified psychologists who are responsible for mental health counseling in "KATAruru." This achieves high convenience, being available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no appointment required and immediate use. By offering both human-centered and AI-powered services, our company will build a system that allows companies to choose the optimal consultation environment according to their challenges and needs.
*2 From Persol Research and Consulting's "Quantitative Survey on Mental Health Issues Among Young Employees":
*3 [Link to Persol Research and Consulting survey]