About
At iris labs, we build products that help people lead more fulfilling lives: deepening their relationships, strengthening their sense of self, and cultivating resilience, purpose and hope.Not just helping people get more done; helping them become who they want to be.
Our belief
What guides us
People experience uncertainty. They get overwhelmed. They lose perspective. They stall. They struggle with relationships, transitions, loneliness, self-doubt, difficult decisions, embarrassing questions, competing priorities, and days when they simply don’t know what to do next.
That doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong. Much of what we call distress is part of the ordinary, messy experience of being human. That also doesn’t mean they couldn’t benefit from an outside perspective and support.
We believe people should remain in charge of their own lives. They decide what matters to them. They make the ultimate choices. iris labs isn’t in the business of fixing people, we’re helping people become better equipped for the experience of being human.
Our work
What we do
We build tools that help people navigate life with greater understanding, connection, and agency.
Sometimes that means helping someone understand what they’re feeling or see themselves more clearly. Sometimes it means finding perspective, getting unstuck, making a decision, preparing for a difficult conversation, reaching out to someone they trust, finding the right information, or taking a concrete step in the world. Sometimes it means finding new music that lights you up or a community you didn’t know existed.
We connect people to themselves, to other people, and to the world around them. We remove the kinds of friction that get in the way of those connections without trying to remove the meaningful friction that is part of living, learning, relating, and growing. Our technology is there when it’s useful, and gets out of the way when it isn’t.
Our frontier
Where we innovate
We are building new kinds of emotional technology: deeply sophisticated underneath, but natural and effortless to the person using it. We help people build from where they are, and grow the inner resources to weather what’s hard and create more of what’s good. It’s about emotional capacity, rather than a prescribed destination.
We’re developing systems that can understand people as three-dimensional, dynamic, socially embedded human beings, not as a collection of symptoms, preferences, or isolated conversations. That means representing how people change over time, understanding the relationships and social contexts that shape their lives, recognizing what matters to them, and adapting intelligently to the moment they’re in.
We’re pushing toward a form of emotional intelligence: systems capable of combining emotional understanding with reasoning, context, memory, relationships, safety, information, play, and timing.
The underlying work is highly technical, iterative, and AI-driven. But the experience shouldn’t feel technical. The sophistication belongs under the hood; what people should feel is understood, supported, and more capable.
At a glance
| Company | iris labs |
|---|---|
| Type | Personal AI company |
| Founded within | Flagship Pioneering |
| Founders | Armen Mkrtchyan, Rockwell Shah, Ayşe Muñiz, Noubar Afeyan |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| First product | iris chat, an AI thought partner you text |
| Guiding framework | Psychological fitness |
| Disciplines | Psychology, behavioral science, AI research, product and design |
| Website | irislabs.com |
Frequently asked questions
What is psychological fitness?
The capacities that let a person meet what life brings and create more of what matters to them: understanding yourself clearly, holding on to the relationships that hold you up, recovering from what knocks you sideways, and moving toward what you care about.
Is iris chat a therapist?
No. iris chat is not a therapist and is not a substitute for professional care. It is a thought partner: somewhere to think out loud, find perspective, and work out a next step. When someone needs more than that, the right answer is a person, not an app.
Who is behind iris labs?
iris labs was founded within Flagship Pioneering by Armen Mkrtchyan, Rockwell Shah, Ayşe Muñiz and Noubar Afeyan. The team brings together psychology, behavioral science, AI research, product and design. Read more here.
How do I get access to iris chat?
iris chat is currently in private access. You can join the waitlist at chatwithiris.com.