Behavioral health executives are thinking big about artificial intelligence in 2025. Leaders in the industry are also bullish on service line expansion, particularly in and around mental health care over other sub-sectors.

Those are some major takeaways from Behavioral Health Business’ recently released 2025 Industry Outlook survey. BHB covered additional insights from the survey earlier in March, highlighting the industry’s views around reimbursement-related challenges and value-based care.

To gain deeper understanding of the key forces influencing the behavioral health landscape in 2025, BHB at the start of the year surveyed 108 professionals working at organizations that deliver behavioral health services. Over 75% of participants held director-level job titles or above, providing a high-level view of top challenges, opportunities and trends.

Among the areas BHB explored in the survey: perceptions on digital health tools.

When asked about digital tools survey respondents were most excited about for 2025, half of individuals surveyed identified AI. Several behavioral health executives, including Dr. Joe Lee, president and CEO of Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, previously predicted AI would make its mark on behavioral health care this year.

“Artificial Intelligence presents tremendous opportunities in operational improvements and data mining,” Lee told BHB. “Documentation, clinical efficiencies, predictive analytics and the democratization of outcomes data are all very exciting.”

There are seemingly endless possibilities for AI in behavioral health care, with some common use cases including early detection and risk assessment as well as virtual mental health assistants and chatbots.

Increasingly, organizations are beginning to think about AI in terms of clinical support and staff training, too.

Other types of digital tools survey respondents said they were excited about included telehealth, digital therapeutics and EHRs.

Meanwhile, when it came to the greatest opportunity for the behavioral health industry in 2025, 27% of survey respondents identified “expanding service offerings.” That was closely followed by “treating underserved populations.”

Just 16% of survey respondents selected value-based care as the industry’s No. 1 opportunity for 2025, and just 9% of those surveyed said consolidation was the top opportunity.

Nashville, Tennessee-based Peregrine Health is one example of a company focused on serving the underserved. The behavioral health company partners with Federally Qualified Health Clinics (FQHCs), Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and other primary care providers to help provide behavioral health services and operational support product

“We’re able to care for those people that need those services in a way that you can profitably do so by partnering with that primary care clinic that has that reimbursement structure in place already,” Ryan Chapman, founder and CEO of Peregrine, previously told BHB.

In the outlook survey, BHB also asked respondents about the most attractive investment target in 2025.

More than half of the industry professionals surveyed identified mental health as the most attractive investment area – far more than any other option. After that, 18% of respondents said substance use disorder (SUD) was the most attractive investment target, with another 15% of surveyed individuals picking autism therapy.

Just 1% of respondents identified the eating disorders market as the most attractive investment area in 2025.

There are several reasons why respondents might have been more optimistic about mental health care compared to autism therapy and SUD services in 2025.

For starters, there is broader market demand and stronger reimbursement tailwinds. Compared to SUD and autism therapy, the mental health care market could likewise hold more opportunities for platform expansion and roll-up potential.

The less-than-optimistic view on the eating disorders space isn’t surprising, as several big-name behavioral health providers scaled back their eating disorder treatment business lines in recent years. That group includes Refresh Mental Health, a subsidiary of Optum.