Evals Driven-Development: Engineering a Mental Health AI Coach Ethically & Safely
Akele Reed · Dave Revere · Doug Keller
AI Engineer World's Fair 2026 · 21:17
Mental Healthcare and Clinical Technology
SonderMind connects people with insurance-covered therapy and psychiatry, offering virtual and in-person appointments alongside digital self-care. Its Care Concierge uses AI to help people find providers and schedule appointments, while its mobile app offers daily reflections, meditation, and breathing exercises. For clinicians, SonderMind handles insurance credentialing and billing and provides electronic health records, scheduling, messaging, and telehealth tools. Its in-network psychiatry service expanded to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. in 2025, complementing its nationwide therapy offering.
Founded in 2014 by Mark Frank, its CEO, and Sean Boyd, SonderMind grew from the connected problems of finding affordable care and running a mental health practice. Its research partnership with the University of Denver examines access, treatment effectiveness, and implementation of measurement-based care: tracking treatment progress to inform clinical work. Published work addresses therapists’ role in that approach and how access and cost relate to early psychotherapy dropout.
By August 2025, SonderMind had built a 13,000-provider network. Its business earns a commission through insurance reimbursement for completed appointments, while also supporting self-pay care. The company raised a $150 million Series C in 2021 at a $1.1 billion valuation, a historical financing milestone in the expansion of its care network and technology.
Akele Reed · Dave Revere · Doug Keller
AI Engineer World's Fair 2026 · 21:17
Affiliations reflect their AIE appearances, not necessarily current employment.
The presentation pairs modular input and output guardrails with independent LLM-as-a-judge checks. Clinician-informed evaluations address risks generic moderation misses, alongside crisis intervention that accounts for conversational context.
Affiliations reflect each recorded session, not necessarily current employment.