# Designing KRIYA: An AI Companion for Wellbeing Self-Reflection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14589 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.14589/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 85 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- ["Why Should I Trust You?": Explaining the Predictions of Any Classifier](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.04938/) (2016)
- [Explanation in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Social Sciences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.07269/) (2017)
- ["Help Me Help the AI": Understanding How Explainability Can Support Human-AI Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03735/) (2022)
- [Facilitating Self-Guided Mental Health Interventions Through Human-Language Model Interaction: A Case Study of Cognitive Restructuring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15461/) (2023)
- [Charting the Sociotechnical Gap in Explainable AI: A Framework to Address the Gap in XAI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00799/) (2023)
- [MindScape Study: Integrating LLM and Behavioral Sensing for Personalized AI-Driven Journaling Experiences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.09570/) (2024)
- [AI Chatbots for Mental Health: Values and Harms from Lived Experiences of Depression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.18932/) (2025)
- [AI on My Shoulder: Supporting Emotional Labor in Front-Office Roles with an LLM-based Empathetic Coworker](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.02408/) (2024)
- [Exploring Personalized Health Support through Data-Driven, Theory-Guided LLMs: A Case Study in Sleep Health](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13920/) (2025)
- [PlanFitting: Personalized Exercise Planning with Large Language Model-driven Conversational Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.12555/) (2023)
- [Studying Self-Care with Generative AI Tools: Lessons for Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.05458/) (2024)
- [Does AI Coaching Prepare us for Workplace Negotiations?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.22545/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Personalizing Personal Health Interfaces: Co-Design with Generative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.15046/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Most personal wellbeing apps present summative dashboards of health and physical activity metrics, yet many users struggle to translate this information into meaningful understanding. These apps commonly support engagement through goals, reminders, and structured targets, which can reinforce comparison, judgment, and performance anxiety. To explore a complementary approach that prioritizes self-reflection, we design KRIYA, an AI wellbeing companion that supports co-interpretive engagement with personal wellbeing data. KRIYA aims to collaborate with users to explore questions, explanations, and future scenarios through features such as Comfort Zone, Detective Mode, and What-If Planning. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 college students interacting with a KRIYA prototype using hypothetical data. Our findings show that through KRIYA interaction, users framed engaging with wellbeing data as interpretation rather than performance, experienced reflection as supportive or pressuring depending on emotional framing, and developed trust through transparency. We discuss design implications for AI companions that support curiosity, self-compassion, and reflective sensemaking of personal health data.