Verke Editorial · Last verified: 2026-04-19

Verke vs. Ash: paid coaching with E2E encryption vs. a free, training-data-funded chatbot

Two incentive models: subscription-funded coaching vs. a free product whose users are training the model.

Ash is the consumer chatbot from Slingshot AI, a venture-backed startup that has raised $93M from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Cowboy Ventures, and others to build a proprietary foundation model for mental health. Ash is currently free; Slingshot has been explicit that user conversations are used to train its model unless users opt out. Verke is an AI coaching app with five specialist coaches — Anna (PDT), Judith (CBT), Marie (EFT/NVC for couples), Amanda (ACT/CFT), and Mikkel (executive) — phone-call-style voice coaching, end-to-end encryption that prevents Verke itself from reading your messages, and the subject of an independent randomized controlled trial at Stockholm University. Across that trial, the patterns participants valued most were 24/7 access in the moment it mattered, a non-judgmental space to be honest, and a coach who remembered what they had been working on across weeks — capabilities Verke is built around. Verke is a coaching product, not a therapy replacement — we call our specialists coaches because that's what they are.

Verke is an AI coaching app with five specialist coaches trained on evidence-based therapeutic methods (CBT, PDT, ACT, EFT, CFT, NVC). Chat in text or switch to voice for a phone-call-style session; pick up again days later with memory that survives across weeks and months. Conversations are end-to-end encrypted, signup is anonymous, and the product is available on iOS, Android, and Web in 55 languages.

The five coaches are differentiated on purpose. Anna works in a psychodynamic register — slower, pattern-first, interested in why the same kind of situation keeps returning. Judith is CBT — small experiments, thought records, gradual exposure. Marie supports couples through Emotionally Focused Therapy and Nonviolent Communication; Amanda blends Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Compassion-Focused Therapy for overwhelm and self-criticism; Mikkel is an executive coach for decision fatigue and leadership load. Users pick who fits the concern, rather than asking one bot to cover everything.

Memory is built to span weeks and months, not single sessions — useful for the kind of pattern recognition that emerges when a coach can connect a tough Tuesday to something you mentioned three weeks earlier. Voice coaching exists because in the Stockholm trial, a recurring request was the option to talk it out when typing felt like too much; voice sessions run phone-call-style and post a written summary back to the chat so the next text conversation picks up where the call left off.

Ash is the consumer-facing chatbot from Slingshot AI, available at talktoash.com and on iOS and Android. It markets itself as “the first AI designed for therapy,” built on a proprietary foundation model trained on behavioral health data and integrating CBT, DBT, ACT, psychodynamic, and motivational interviewing styles into a single AI persona named Ash. The product is currently free; per Slingshot's own statements, this is because user conversations are used to train its model unless users opt out. The company has raised $93M from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Cowboy Ventures, and others, and reported 150,000+ users by mid-2025. Ash is text-based per its landing page; no voice-call feature is highlighted. In November 2025 Slingshot self-published a safety study that drew explicit criticism in STAT News for offering little clinical proof. Per public reporting, there is no clinician on the founding team.

Ash is the honest pick if you can't or don't want to pay anything to start, you work in English, and you're comfortable with your conversations being used as training data for Slingshot's proprietary model. The well-funded backing means the company has runway to keep building, and the single-persona experience is polished. If modality breadth from one general-purpose AI matters more to you than specialist depth across several coaches — and if voice coaching, anonymous signup, and end-to-end encryption aren't deciding factors — Ash is a credible option in the category. See our research page for why we draw the coach-vs-therapist distinction the way we do.

Verke is built for people who want a coach matched to a specific concern, not a generalist — and who want the product's incentives aligned with theirs. A paid subscription means Verke is selling a coaching product, not building a training set. End-to-end encryption means Verke itself cannot read your conversations. If you're working on structured CBT skills, Judith (CBT) runs small experiments, thought records, and gradual exposure. For old relational patterns, there's Anna (PDT); for couples work, Marie; for acceptance and self-compassion, Amanda; for high-pressure leadership, Mikkel. Voice coaching in a phone-call format is core to the product, anonymous signup is built in, and Verke is the subject of an ongoing Stockholm University trial supervised by Professor Per Carlbring. Read the method explainer for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — Ash also lists CBT, and the comparison is a good way to see the difference between a generalist and a specialist.

Three practical differences are worth calling out. First, incentives: a paid subscription and a no-training-on-user-data policy mean Verke's business model doesn't depend on retaining your conversations. Ash's does. Second, voice: Verke's voice sessions run up to twenty minutes over phone-call-style WebRTC, with a written summary that posts back into the chat so you can pick up in text the next day. Ash is text-only per its landing page. Third, specialist match: rather than asking one persona to cover everything, Verke routes you to a coach with a named methodology and a memory that spans weeks — closer to the kind of continuity participants in the Stockholm trial valued most.

Verke fits if you want support that's reachable when it matters — late evenings, quiet weekends, the small windows when something is actually on your mind — without a performance-anxiety filter, in a language you actually think in, with a coach who picks up the thread next week instead of starting from zero. The validation story matters here too: an independent academic RCT at Stockholm University is a different kind of evidence than a self-published safety paper, even before either set of outcomes is in.