Europe-based people analytics platform Erudit AI announced earlier this week that it is launching in the US. The platform, which uses predictive AI to analyze employee communications for tell-tale signs of poor mental well-being, was founded in Spain in 2019 by Alejandro Martínez Agenjo and Ricardo Michel Reyes, and has raised US$1.2 million in seed funding to date.

Erudit AI works by connecting to communication tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Gmail, and using a sentiment analysis system to measure and predict burnout, friction, and engagement in the workplace based on the content it detects. According to the company, this analysis is significantly more accurate than the results of engagement surveys.

Agenjo, the CEO, says that Erudit AI's ultimate objective is to raise awareness of mental health in the workplace by "merging AI technology with psychology".

“The way we work has changed and HR managers need more intuitive methods to safeguard the health and happiness of their workplace,” he said.“We hope to open the conversation about mental health in companies and turn the attention of HR managers to those who need help but perhaps do not know how to ask for it.”

The US is a ripe market for workplace mental well-being tools, with government statistics indicating that 20 percent of the adult population has suffered from some form of mental illness at some time, and 70-80 percent have experienced at least one symptom of stress. One 2017 estimate also puts the annual cost of lost productivity due to depression at US$44 billion.