Enhancing the Role of Digital Health Navigators With Lived Experience: AI-Assisted Conavigation for Safety, Support, and Engagement

Abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) expands across mental health services, questions arise about whether it can replace digital health navigators (DHNs), including those with lived experience. The DHN role generally resists automation because lived experience deepens specific dimensions that AI cannot replicate. Drawing on emerging evidence of AI's limitations in contextual reasoning, cultural sensitivity, and clinical safety, the authors identify where DHNs with lived experience are least substitutable: real-world knowledge of services, cultural grounding in the communities they serve, and relational trust. A practical model is also outlined in which AI augments DHN workflows through triage, documentation, and engagement monitoring.