AXA warns AI can’t replace care as UK mental health slumps
TL;DR:
- More than one in three people in the UK are struggling with poor mental health, ranking the country worst in Europe, according to AXA’s sixth annual Mind Health Report.
- With NHS waits lengthening, 46% of UK respondents said they had turned to AI tools for support — and 27% said an AI recommendation led them into harmful behaviour.
- AXA UK chief executive Tara Foley warns AI cannot fill the gap alone, with direct implications for insurers building AI into health products.
The report captures a country leaning on AI to plug a care shortfall. Some 60% of respondents had not seen a mental health professional in the past year, a quarter citing fear of stigma, while NHS data shows people are roughly eight times more likely to wait over 18 months for mental health treatment than for physical care.
A regulatory reckoning building
The trust data is uncomfortable: 42% said they trust AI guidance more than a mental health professional’s, yet 43% were dissatisfied with the advice they received. That gap is exactly what regulators are circling. The Commons Treasury Committee criticised UK regulators in January for failing to manage AI risks in financial services, urging the FCA to clarify how consumer-protection and vulnerable-customer rules apply to AI-driven interactions.
For health and protection insurers embedding AI into underwriting, claims and support, Foley’s warning signals closer supervisory attention on customer outcomes. The stakes are concrete: group-risk insurers paid out £2.69bn in claims last year, with mental illness accounting for 48% of intervention cases.
Looking forward
The widening gap between demand for mental health support and public capacity is unlikely to close, so AI tools will keep filling it — regulated or not. The report’s implicit message to UK insurers and employers is that deploying AI in wellbeing without clinical guardrails is now a supervisory risk, not just a reputational one.