Stephen Barrett, an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University and allied research and knowledge translation lead at Bendigo Health, had spent years proving the effectiveness of motivational interviewing as an approach to behavioural change intervention. His research delivered strong results - but scaling it required a technology partner who could bring that research to life without compromising its integrity. Ligantic partnered with Stephen through our Accelerator programme to bridge the gap between proven research and a scalable, trial-ready technology platform.
Stephen's research sat at the intersection of public health and behaviour change - a domain where precision, ethics compliance, and participant experience are non-negotiable. He had a strong hypothesis that his proven motivational interviewing approach could be delivered through a technology-first or hybrid model while maintaining its effectiveness. However, finding the right platform proved difficult. A previous engagement with another AI provider had left him frustrated: the solution was a black box, prohibitively expensive, and impossible to customise. He couldn't tailor the tone or language to meet the specific needs of research participants, and he was locked into the developer's availability for any changes. What Stephen needed was a platform that was adaptable, auditable, and accessible enough for a non-technologist to build with confidence - while meeting the stringent ethics requirements of La Trobe University's research framework.
Stephen joined Ligantic's Accelerator programme - a structured six-week engagement designed to equip participants with the skills and tools to build solutions on the Ligantic platform independently. Over those six weeks, he learned the platform, leveraged our Retrieval Augmented Generation chat template as a foundation, and built his first pilot-ready programme from the ground up. He validated the solution with colleagues, confirming it met the requirements for his broader research rollout. The Accelerator gave Stephen something his previous provider never could: capability and control.
Stephen gained hands-on proficiency with the Ligantic platform, moving from non-technologist to confident builder.
Our pre-built chat template provided a rapid starting point, accelerating Stephen's ability to operationalise his research.
Stephen tailored tone, language, and interaction design to meet the precise needs of his research participants and methodology.
The platform's auditability and observability enabled Stephen's solution to pass a full ethics application with La Trobe University.
Stephen is now independently enabled on the Ligantic platform - building, iterating, and advancing his research without dependency on external developers. His AURA programme is actively in trial, answering critical questions about the role of AI in scaling behavioural change interventions. The continuous partnership between Ligantic and Stephen has moved from accelerator to operationalisation to active research trial - a progression that validates both the platform's capability and the Accelerator programme's model of empowering domain experts to lead their own technology builds. Ligantic is proud to support research that has the potential to reshape how behavioural change programmes are delivered at scale across public health.