How we build Aury

Care you can check

Aury talks with people who are under pressure. That is a responsibility.

Here we describe who is behind Aury, how we assure its quality, where the limits of the AI lie and how we handle your data.

How we control what Aury does

The language model puts the words together. What Aury may and may not do is set by instructions our team writes, tests and approves.

Youwrite in the app or the browser

Consentbeforehand: what happens with your data

Break reminderafter a lot of time in the app, Aury suggests a break

Boundaries: no diagnosis, no treatment, no replacement for therapy

Clinical teamdefines what Aury brings up and how it responds in a crisis

Methods and courseput together by psychologists

Auryfollows our team's instructions and methods

Language modelwords what Aury says, within these rules

Safety systemautomatically looks for signs of a crisis

Crisis contactsfrom a fixed, clinically reviewed list

Regular checksmore than 100 automated tests keep checking that Aury runs stably and safely

Spot checks by professionalsour psychology team reads individual conversations afterwards, within your consent, to ensure safety and professional quality

Who is behind Aury

Aury is built by a team of psychologists, therapists and engineers.

Clinical responsibility

The clinical work is led by Saskia Fester, psychologist and trained therapist, co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer.

We are advised on the science by Prof. Dr. Kevin Hilbert (clinical psychology) and Prof. Dr. Christoph Benzmüller (AI systems).

Meet the team

People behind the AI

Aury follows instructions our team writes, tests and approves. The language model does the wording; we set the boundaries.
Our psychologists choose the methods: cognitive behavioural therapy, ACT, systemic counselling and mindfulness. Our engineers build and test the technology.
Our psychology team regularly reads individual conversations afterwards to make sure Aury responds safely and professionally. Only our clinical team does this, and only within the scope of your consent.

Our clinical quality assurance – and the limits of AI

Aury is an AI coach for everyday stress, with safety built into its architecture from the start. Aury does not replace human support, psychotherapy or psychiatric treatment.

Clear limits

Aury is for adults aged 18 and over. Before the course ‘Digital Stress Management with Aury’, you confirm a short health check.
In the background of every conversation, an automated safety system looks for signs of a crisis. If something sounds worrying, Aury pauses and gently asks. If there are signs that you need professional help from people, Aury says so clearly and helps you find the right numbers and places to turn to.
Important: no one reads along live, and Aury is not a crisis service. In an acute crisis, please contact emergency services directly (112).

Crisis help

Clinically developed, continuously tested

Our clinical psychologists have developed their own benchmark of 15 quality criteria that we use to measure Aury's ethical and professional quality. Clinical psychologists rate Aury's behaviour in conversations against this benchmark.
In addition, more than 100 automated tests check Aury against the same benchmark (‘LLM as a judge’: a second AI model rates the answers). Every problem we find becomes a permanent test and feeds into product development.

Your data

Aury Care GmbH is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022, the international standard for information security.

Security and data protection

Aury is hosted in the EU. The AI models run in the EU as well. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Your conversations are not used to train AI models.
You can delete your account in the app at any time.
Questions about your data? Our data protection contact answers them: dpo@aury.co.

Certificates and publications

Scientific partners: Osnabrück University, University of Bamberg, HMU Erfurt

What is not finished yet

Whether our course ‘Digital Stress Management with Aury’ reduces stress is being studied in the pre-registered study (see above). There is no proof of effectiveness yet – until there is, we do not claim it.

Aury is new, in its testing phase, and makes mistakes. We don't wait for something to go wrong: we keep watching (see the review processes above) and keep improving Aury. Feedback is always welcome 💜

As of September 2026