MindfulAgents: Personalizing Mindfulness Meditation via an Expert-Aligned Multi-Agent System

TL;DR

MindfulAgents is a multi-agent system utilizing large language models to personalize mindfulness meditation, significantly improving user engagement, self-awareness, and stress reduction through tailored guided sessions in lab and deployment studies.

Contribution

This work introduces a novel LLM-powered multi-agent system that personalizes mindfulness meditation experiences, addressing scalability issues of manual customization.

Findings

Improved in-session engagement and self-awareness in lab study

Increased long-term engagement and mindfulness in deployment

Participants found sessions more relevant and personalized

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation is a widely accessible and evidence-based method for supporting mental health. Despite the proliferation of mindfulness meditation apps, sustaining user engagement remains a persistent challenge. Personalizing the meditation experience is a promising strategy to improve engagement, but it often requires costly and unscalable manual effort. We present MindfulAgents, a multi-agent system powered by large language models that (1) generates guided meditation scripts based on an expert-established mindfulness framework, (2) encourages users' reflection on emotional states and mindfulness skills, and (3) enables real-time personalization of the mindfulness meditation experience for each user. In a formative lab study (N=13), MindfulAgents significantly improved in-session engagement (p = 0.011) and self-awareness (p = 0.014), and reduced momentary stress (p = 0.020). Furthermore, a four-week deployment study (N=62) demonstrated a notable increase in long-term engagement (p = 0.002) and level of mindfulness (p = 0.023). Participants reported that MindfulAgents offered more relevant meditation sessions personalized to individual needs in various contexts, supporting sustained practice. Our findings highlight the potential of LLM-driven personalization for enhancing user engagement in digital mindfulness meditation interventions.