We created the first Facebook chatbot that helps people with alcoholism. Over 20 hours of testimonials from real AA members were collected and turned into data to fill the chatbot. For every question, there is an answer from someone who knows exactly how a person with drinking problems feels, without any judgements. Like in at AA meetings, people stayed after reading the stories and identifying themselves on in them. From the 12 steps of recovery to general information about the disease, all content was made to direct people to a nearby group, which can be done simply by sharing your location. The Anonymous Friend is also able to help an alcoholic in a setbackrelapse by finding and urgent group and help non-alcoholics people with alcoholic friends or relatives by giving tips and ways to approach them.

We implemented the idea using Facebook Chatbot technology for Messenger. The campaign used AA members's real stories to directly create a bond with viewers, just like it happens in the meetings.

It took us 4 months to put this idea in theon the air. First, we had to deepen our knowledge about the disease, thenand then design a huge conversation flow of conversation to cover the most important points of the subject. After that, we collected and turn into data over 20 hours of real AA members's testimonials and turned into data to fill the conversation flow, programmed the bot and created the campaign to encourage people to interact with it.

The first Anonymous Friend was made for Brazil, but we'rewe are making this project an open- source since AAs around the World are willing to implement the chatbot in their countrycountries.

In one year, we had over 594.000 conversations.

67% of users were teenagers.

AA groups could be reached with a single click.

And the Bot covered 30% more cities than the AA presence in the country

Daily requests for help to AA’s email increased by 1300%

Groups registered an increase of 25% of new members

And 97 new groups were created to attend this demand.

The first group increase in 10 years.

AA's from Europe also showed interest on using our bot and are currently studying it for implementation.