context: The PRC’s push to integrate AI into education has accelerated since 2023, and the Ministry of Education has framed AI as both a teaching and wellbeing tool. Ten measures to strengthen mental health work for primary and secondary school students, first formally included AI psychological assistants in national-level student health policy, marking an institutional endorsement of AI-supported school counselling.
MoE (Ministry of Education) released ten measures to strengthen mental health work for primary and secondary students on 24 October 2025. The eighth measure calls for ‘using AI and other modern information technologies to empower student mental health efforts’ and encourages local authorities to explore AI psychological assistants and smart stress-relief rooms.
The move signals growing official endorsement for AI-enabled emotional support in schools. Generative AI in K-12 education guidelines (2025 edition) also permits students to use AI for ‘appropriate psychological adjustment’ under teacher and parent supervision.
Several leading education tech firms have already acted on this policy trend. iFlytek, a major MoE partner, has built a ‘testing–screening–intervention’ system through its ‘AI Stress Planet’ platform, now deployed in over 4,900 schools. Its AI companion ‘Xiaoxing’ monitors student emotions through multimodal analysis and provides personalised counselling. Lingxin Intelligence, a Tsinghua University spin-off, has developed the 'Emohaa' large psychological model and launched AI mental assessment systems, dual-teacher AI psychology classes and AI-powered mental health spaces in hundreds of schools.
Tech giants such as Tencent have entered the field too, co-developing the ‘Mind Guardian’ chatbot with Hubei Business College to provide emotional management and stress-response support.
The policy momentum reflects growing prioritisation over student mental wellbeing (studies show nearly 15 percent of PRC adolescents experience depressive symptoms) and persistent shortages of school counsellors. While AI-driven solutions promise scalable and private emotional support, experts also caution about challenges in emotion recognition accuracy, data privacy and dependence on virtual companions.