Shamiri Institute has unveiled shamiriAI, an Artificial Intelligence platform for mental health support for young people across Africa.
In Kenya, with a population exceeding 50 million, there are fewer than 500 psychiatrists, rendering traditional one-on-one therapy models unviable for mass access. shamiriAI is designed to close this gap, leveraging machine learning, data analytics, and speech recognition to improve the efficiency and consistency of care delivery.
At the 2025 Shamiri Summit, themed Wires and Signals, Founder and CEO Tom Osborn announced an ambitious target: to reach 10 million youth by 2032 using shamiriAI’s scaling capabilities.
“AI allows us to bridge gaps that human systems alone cannot close — it makes care smarter, faster, and more culturally grounded,” said Osborn. “Africa doesn’t have to wait for imported innovation. We are building our own tools, training AI on our languages, and creating technology that understands our people.”
The platform features a customized Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) model trained on English, Swahili, and Sheng (Kenyan slang). This enables it to transcribe and analyze conversations that fluidly switch between languages, a common characteristic of everyday Kenyan speech.
shamiriAI utilizes analytics to optimize limited human resources:
- Real-Time Assessment: The platform analyzes therapy sessions in real time, checking for adherence to evidence-based protocols and providing immediate feedback to help therapists improve faster.
- Predictive Matching: Using predictive modeling, it matches clients with the therapies most likely to help them based on their specific symptoms and needs, creating data-driven, personalized care pathways.
The new platform enhances the Shamiri Institute’s existing evidence-based model, which relies on 18 to 22 year-old lay providers trained for only 10 hours.
Shamiri claims to have reached over 185,000 young people across Kenya at a cost of only $7 (Ksh. 904) per youth.
H.E. Arnaud Suquet, French Ambassador to Kenya and Somalia, commented during the Summit:
“Technology and AI can rightly address global health issues. Kenya is well-positioned to be at the forefront of this and Shamiri has stood out with a solution. Their model reaches young people where they are through peer support at just Ksh. 1,000 a person—a model over ten times cheaper than traditional therapy. Through AI-led innovations such as shamiriAI, they have been able to reach close to 200,000 Kenyans.”