The Emerging Roles of AI in Self-Directed Stress Management: Systematic Review.

Abstract

Stress is widespread and carries substantial mental health, social, and economic burdens. Yet, access to clinician-led stress management remains constrained by service capacity, cost, and stigma. In response, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled tools have rapidly proliferated as scalable, self-directed options. However, evidence on how these systems support stress management outside formal clinical settings remains fragmented. This systematic review aimed to synthesize empirical evidence on how AI-enabled technologies are used for self-directed stress management. We mapped the emerging functions of these tools, the psychological frameworks informing their design, the populations and settings studied, and the outcomes reported. We conducted a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)-compliant systematic review of English-language studies published between 2000 and 2025. Six databases were searched (APA PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, ProQuest, and Google Scholar). Of 3008 records identified, 35 studies met the inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of included studies was critically appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (version 2018). Findings illustrated that AI-supported stress management can operate through 5 core functions, including psychological intervention, behavioral support, psychoeducation, companionship, and emotional support, and stress monitoring, detection, and triage. Across the reviewed studies, these functions supported self-directed stress management by helping users identify stress, regulate responses, and engage in coping outside formal clinical care. AI-enabled systems show preliminary promise for supporting self-directed stress management through multiple user-facing functions grounded in established psychological frameworks.