Whakarongorau builds AI-powered Welcome service

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Whakarongorau Aotearoa will launch an AI-powered Welcome service in May 2026 to support people waiting to connect with mental health counsellors through its 1737 and Women's Refuge web chat services. 

The Microsoft Azure AI system gathers background information, helps understand why people are contacting the service and holds them until they connect with a counsellor.

Whakarongorau chief support services officer Anna Campbell says this allows clinicians to focus on care from the first moment of contact.

The telehealth provider manages more than 7,000 interactions daily across its health, mental health and social services, connecting with over 735,000 people across Aotearoa each year. 

Campbell says the organisation is facing growing demand for its services and the complexity of support needed is increasing.

At-risk contacts - people at risk of harming themselves or others - have nearly doubled over the past five years in Whakarongorau's mental health services and these complex interactions now take about 50 per cent longer on average than previously.

"When someone's waiting in a queue and they are in distress, that wait time really matters," says Campbell. 

“It is about making the experience more connected, more responsive and more human, even as demand continues to grow.”

The Welcome service sits at the front of SMS interactions for 1737 and web chat for Women's Refuge services. 

It introduces itself as an AI and callers can choose whether to engage or not. As well as gathering information it can offer non-clinical support like breathing techniques if they agree.

Staff currently start with no information about who they are speaking to on a call, why the person is reaching out, or how urgent the situation is, but the new service means that when a counsellor joins the conversation, they have context from the start.

"We support a high number of people through those web and SMS based interactions, so we know from speaking to people that they are ready and comfortable to deal with an agentic support as well, knowing that they will speak to one of our people at the end of that process,” says Campbell.

She tells eHealthNews that Whakarongorau developed the service with clinical oversight and input from frontline staff and tested it with staff, trusted mental health service partners and people with lived experience.

She says success for the Welcome service is about connection and care rather than efficiency metrics. 

"For us it is about connection, it is experience and it is getting people that pathway to wellbeing that they need and deserve," Campbell said.

The Welcome service is part of Whakarongorau's broader digital transformation, including migration to Microsoft's New Zealand datacentre region. This move saves the organisation $10,000 monthly in IT fees whilst enabling AI innovation and improved service delivery.

Image: Whakarongorau chief support services officer Anna Campbell

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