Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving into areas of life once dominated by other people, from workplace advice to emotional support. Hy, which describes itself as a new venture ecosystem, is betting that this could make face-to-face human connection more valuable. The company says it is testing AI to document and analyze face-to-face conversations.
In its "forest walk" experiments, people walk with a human listener while AI records and summarizes the conversation. "A system might document a conversation, preserve decisions, or help map collective knowledge while people remain responsible for the meaning and direction of the work," said Weston Mossman, Hy's product and experience lead and acting chief product officer. Hy says it has conducted 21 experiments so far, with participants retaining ownership of their transcripts.
Afterward, the AI can be asked to look at the conversation from different perspectives. People then decide what those observations mean and whether they should affect the next conversation or decision. Hy also puts its conversations into a shared body of notes, which Mossman says AI can examine for recurring or conflicting patterns, helping the team decide what needs further attention.
The company says it launched in San Francisco's Bay Area on September 19 and is already working with more than 100 communities and organizations, including tech companies, financial institutions, startup ecosystems and communities of practice. A second launch is planned for the greater Lisbon, Portugal, area in November. "Growth, in our view, can travel through local communities and diverse contexts, allowing ideas to adapt to the people and environments receiving them," Hy founder and CEO Ariana Bahrami told Newsweek.
Hy calls itself "an incubator for the life-centric economy." Rather than developing its own AI model, it experiments with existing models and how they can be used in service of what it calls "love, life and joy." The American Psychological Association's 2025 Stress in America survey found that 54 percent of U.S. adults had felt isolated often or some of the time. Half said they lacked companionship, while 69 percent said they had needed more emotional support in the previous year than they received. At the same time, 92 percent said relationships were a source of meaning.
Some people are turning to AI for emotional support. A November 2025 NAMI/Ipsos poll found that 12 percent of U.S. adults said they were likely to use AI chatbots for mental-health treatment or therapy within six months. One percent said they already did.
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