Headway Acquires Tezi Team to Build Human-Centered AI for Its National Mental Health Network

New updates have been reported about Headway.

Headway has acquired the team behind AI-native firm Tezi, a move aimed at embedding human-in-the-loop AI into the company’s operations across what it calls the largest mental health provider network in the U.S. By bringing Tezi’s engineering, design, and data science talent in-house, Headway plans to automate high-friction administrative workflows so clinicians can devote more time to patient care and patients can more easily navigate insurance and provider selection.

The deal brings Tezi cofounder Raghavendra Prabhu on board as Vice President of Engineering, leveraging his experience building large-scale systems at major technology companies to develop reliable AI tools tailored to mental health. Integrated into Headway’s broader product and engineering organization and working closely with clinical and operational leaders, the Tezi team is expected to design AI systems that streamline provider matching, scheduling, and insurance logistics while preserving clinician judgment at the center of care.

Headway frames the acquisition as a strategic investment in infrastructure rather than a shift toward automated clinical decision-making, emphasizing AI’s role in reducing fragmentation in how patients access mental health services. Executives underscored that the technology will be deployed to simplify complex workflows that currently burden providers and confuse patients, such as benefits verification and ongoing coordination of care, which can be significant cost and capacity constraints for private practices.

With operations across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and a network of more than 70,000 therapists working under insurance, the company expects AI-enabled efficiencies to scale across a large base of stakeholders. If successfully implemented, these systems could lower operational overhead per encounter, increase provider capacity on the platform, and improve patient throughput while supporting payers’ demand for timely, in-network mental health access.

Headway’s leadership positions this move as part of a broader strategy to become the default infrastructure layer for insured mental health care in the U.S. By combining Tezi’s AI capabilities with clinical oversight, the company aims to differentiate on both accessibility and operational sophistication, which may strengthen its standing with investors and payer partners already backing its expansion.