Can Headway Make an AI Version of You?

Headway’s individual agreement grants broad rights to provider images, voices and other supplied material, but its likeness clause does not expressly authorize an autonomous AI therapist. The wording in Section II.E raises reasonable questions about synthetic versions of a clinician. That is different from proof of a plan to create one—or a legal conclusion that every such use is permitted.

You do not have to believe a company is secretly building your replacement to question how much control you are giving up. For a therapist, a face, voice and professional reputation are not interchangeable marketing assets.

Reviewed October 16, 2026, for U.S. private-practice therapists. Bomi sells billing and credentialing services and has a commercial interest in this subject. This is general education, not legal advice or a determination of enforceability.

What the likeness clause actually says

Section II.E, printed page 4 of the individual agreement, concerns provider material for the platform or marketplace: names, biographies, images, voices, videos and recordings. Rights go to the contracting Practice and its affiliates, successors and assigns.

The license is described as perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free and irrevocable. It includes licensing to others and making derivative works—new works based on supplied material—in existing or future media, including altered or combined versions. Providers receive no additional compensation and waive finished-product review or approval.

That is a broad license, not ownership of your identity. Nor should this clause be treated as a grant over patient records or all session audio. Whether a particular synthetic use falls within it or is lawful requires the full agreement, the proposed use and applicable law.

Why ask for more than an accurate profile?

A marketplace has a clear reason to display your name, biography and photograph: clients need to know whom they are considering. That does not, by itself, explain why it needs every possible alteration, future medium or downstream use.

The question worth asking: why are rights broader than maintaining and promoting my current, accurate profile needed for the service I am choosing today?

This is not just about whether a picture looks flattering. Material presented as you could imply an endorsement, treatment approach, availability or professional judgment you never approved. That concern exists even if no software ever conducts a therapy session.

An AI scribe, an avatar and an AI therapist are different

The first example below is a documented Headway tool. The other two are hypothetical scenarios—not reports of Headway products or plans.

An assistant drafts your note

Headway’s Scribe workflow creates a note draft for the clinician to review, edit and sign. That is documentation assistance, not software independently delivering the appointment.

Evaluate the work it produces: does it reflect the actual session, attribute statements correctly and avoid adding an intervention or conclusion you did not make? A fluent draft still needs your judgment.

A synthetic voice or avatar promotes a practice

Hypothetical: a promotional video combines your photograph with a generated voice describing your approach. No therapy occurs, but viewers could reasonably think you said or endorsed the message.

Would you approve the script and final recording? Would the synthetic content be identified? Could you correct it when your specialty or availability changes? You could welcome an AI note assistant while declining this entirely different use.

Software responds to clients as though it were you

Different hypothetical: a system uses your voice and responds to a distressed person without your reviewing the exchange. Who is providing the service? What is the person told? Who supervises it, handles a misunderstood risk and answers for the response?

A media license alone does not answer those questions. Equally, the existence of broad wording or an AI scribe does not establish that this scenario is being built.

What Headway has actually announced

Headway’s October 1 product announcement describes clinician-reviewed AI notes. Its March 31 announcement about the Tezi team describes AI work to reduce operational friction around care. Neither announcement describes therapist replicas. These are statements about announced work, not assurances about every future plan.

The Provider Platform Terms, updated October 15, describe Headway’s role as technology and administrative support, not clinical care or decision-making. Section 1 allows AI tools for operational and clinical or administrative workflows, warns that output can be inaccurate, and requires independent clinician review.

Section 4 ties use of provider information back to the Provider Agreement. Its separate Feedback provision excludes patient medical records and patient information. A product suggestion, profile video and session transcript are not automatically the same data category. Ask which provision governs the particular material and proposed use.

Scribe consent and retention are separate questions

According to Headway’s October 15 Scribe privacy guide, client consent precedes transcription. No durable audio or video recording is kept, but full transcripts remain for roughly 30 days. Limited trained staff may review them for accuracy; quality or legal exceptions can extend retention.

Headway’s zero-retention and no-training assurance about Anthropic is vendor-specific. It does not mean Headway keeps nothing. Providers can decline optional de-identified transcript retention and still use Scribe. Stated uses include improving Scribe and other Headway products, including matching.

The page gives inconsistent explanations of historical transcript deletion after opting out. Do not promise that every older copy disappears. Ask for written clarification about existing identified and de-identified transcripts, backups and deletion timing.

Evaluate two decisions separately: whether the draft is useful, and whether you are comfortable with the information handling behind it. Ask which settings apply to your account and whether “product improvement” means model training, evaluation or something else. An answer about profile marketing does not resolve transcript questions.

Six questions to send Headway in writing

Ask about current activity and future boundaries. These proposed questions are not allegations that the described uses are happening.

1. Synthetic versions: does Section II.E permit a generated face, voice, avatar or statement I did not personally record? Please distinguish existing uses from possible future uses.

2. Separate consent: would synthetic identity use require another affirmative agreement? Could I decline without losing unrelated services?

3. Prior approval: would I approve the exact script, imagery, audio, purpose and placement before publication and again before material changes?

4. Other companies: which entities may use or license my material? Can they use it independently or license it onward, and which restrictions follow it?

5. After departure: which uses stop when our relationship ends? When would public profiles, promotional material and third-party versions be removed?

6. Correction and removal: how do I report an inaccurate or unwanted use, what happens during review, and how will I know it is resolved?

What therapists can do now

Inventory what you have supplied: biography, headshot, introduction video, voice clips and other promotional material. Decide your actual boundary. An accurate directory profile, an approved synthetic introduction and an unsupervised digital representation are different permissions. Ask whether the agreement can reflect your preferences; do not assume Headway offers separate contractual opt-outs for each use.

A statement about today’s product is not the same as a lasting restriction. “We are not doing that now” would answer a present-tense question; it would not necessarily resolve a request for limits on future use.

Save the version you are offered, your questions and the response. Do not assume deleting an upload or disabling an AI tool changes a signed license. If a permission materially affects your decision, have a qualified adviser review the agreement that actually applies to you. This article is not a redline proving which words are new for every therapist.

For the rest of the contract, see our Headway agreement overview. For the financial change, see the separate $9.99 marketplace fee breakdown.

Where Bomi fits

Shameless Bomi plug: Bomi Billing helps with benefits checks, claims, denial follow-up and credentialing in supported EHRs. We do not provide legal review or certify a platform as free of AI-related risk. Apply the same scrutiny to Bomi and every other vendor: what permission is needed, for what purpose, and with what control for your practice?

Useful AI tools and meaningful consent can coexist. We respect efforts to reduce administrative work. Our skepticism is about the breadth of permission, not a verified plan to replace clinicians. Ask for specific boundaries before turning a general reassurance into a decision.

Sources and review scope

Public sources checked October 16, 2026. We downloaded and checked both linked agreements, including a visual review of the likeness clause. We did not inspect an individual practice’s signed contract, audit Headway’s systems, obtain answers to the proposed questions or determine legal enforceability.

• Individual Provider Agreement, Section II.E, page 4 — public October 2026 version.

• Provider Platform Terms, Sections 1 and 4 — updated October 15, 2026.

• Scribe workflow — updated October 14; Scribe privacy and data — updated October 15, 2026.

• Headway’s marketplace and product announcement — October 1; Tezi team announcement — March 31, 2026.