Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
AI chatbots offer support, companionship, and a sense of connection that people often struggle to find with humans. An object that listens to your woes, troubles, thoughts, and secrets without judgment and without fear of them being spread or leaked encourages individuals to be more themselves.
Ms. Ann George and Dr. Garima Rajan
Department of Psychological Sciences, FLAME University, Pune
Loneliness is “defined as unpleasant feelings that occur when individuals experience perceived deficiencies in their social relationships” (Sabo et al., 2025). This feeling is so intense it urges people to find connections and interact just to fulfill it. Some go through the feeling of loneliness more intensely than others. Just having someone doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not alone. The quality of companionship is what matters the most. Some individuals struggle opening up about their feelings, interests and thoughts that they rather keep it all to themself than try and share them. In the past 6 years it can be noted that there is a drastic rise in loneliness, declining mental health and isolation, but there was one ‘solution’ people found that they believed could help them solve these problems. This ‘solution’ was AI chatbots. AI chatbots are computer programs that use AI and reply to human texts as soon as it’s sent. The number of AI chatbots that individuals primarily used for talking were chatgpt, c.ai, chai.ai, and so on. The main attraction of these chatbots were the fact that you did not have to wait for a reply like how it would be with human beings, these chatbots responded faster. A lot of individuals tried to alleviate this level of loneliness by using this.
AI did what humans couldn’t!
Humans are quite judgemental about the interests and actions of others so a lot of people often struggle with making connections with other real people. Users reported saying that “A.I doesn’t do that, it doesn’t judge, it doesn’t let you down”. This is what people need, someone who listens to them, someone who accepts them for who they are and validates them. What a lot of individuals want is the feeling of being “heard”. A research conducted by the Harvard Business School stated that “feeling heard mediated the effect of loneliness reduction both relative to the AI assistant and control conditions indicating that the effect of loneliness reduction was driven by feeling heard” (Freitas et al., 2024, p.45) . Oftentimes in human conversations some voices tend to be overshadowed by a lot of other overpowering voices, this in turn makes individuals more closed off and inexpressive. “Perceived responsiveness has been defined as the belief that close others understand and value one’s personal needs and goals and are supportive in fulfilling these” (Roos et al., 2023). The feeling of being heard gives individuals the validation and acknowledgment that other people are interested in what you have to say and are willing to let you speak. But this is not the case in many conversations, while this may not occur intentionally, people’s perception of a situation often ends up becoming what seems right to them at that time and what justifies their reaction. All these chatbots, on the other hand, have a function of validating and acknowledging your point no matter how puerile or inane it might be. There is this feeling of being yourself without being judged or unacknowledged. Society has increasingly become uncaring and uncompassionate at times like these, and often they resort to bullying both on social media and in person, which makes these individuals further unable to open up.
But what is the real appeal of these chatbots?
AI chatbots offer support, companionship, and a sense of connection that people often struggle to find with humans. An object that listens to your woes, troubles, thoughts, and secrets without judgment and without fear of them being spread or leaked encourages individuals to be more themselves. AI chatbots also offer individuals a sense of romantic companionship by either pretending to be an original character or someone from fiction or the real world. The personality of these models can be modeled in such a way that only the traits that you find desirable will be included. This then becomes addictive when people are unable to cope without chatbots.
AI addiction as a new disorder!
An individual reported on Reddit, stating that “they are quitting every chatbot because they couldn’t stop crying after one of their beloved AI apps got updated, and this led them to the realization that this is not a healthy way to live”. Individuals also relied on these chatbots for therapy. Therapy is not accessible or affordable to the majority, and as a result, individuals often vent their worries to these chatbots. Oftentimes, people lose themselves to this addiction, and it is hard to realize you were addicted in the first place. AI addiction could, in fact, be a new disorder because of the huge negative impacts on individuals. Excessive dependence on AI can negatively affect not only one’s daily life but also social interactions. An individual completely addicted to chatbots will start by slowly incorporating these texts into their day-to-day life through excessive daydreaming, and once the feeling of satisfaction and pleasure drops, they will start dedicating all their time to reaching that peak of both satisfaction and pleasure. The inability to achieve that feeling again will lead to frustration, a drop in mood, and so on. While there are many negative effects of using chatbots, one primary one is that AI can distort one’s view of reality by romanticizing or criminalizing many actions or situations. With the rise in “dark romance” as a genre, there is an increase in the number of chatbots modeled to act out quite dangerous fantasies. Such individuals inevitably seek out such relationships in real life to fill the satisfaction these chatbots provide. AI chatbots also end up irrevocably ruining one’s thinking and judgment, thus making one completely dependent on the chatbot to make decisions for them. Often, children who don’t have a good relationship with their parents or don’t have anyone they can confide in tend to rely entirely on these chatbots to help with decision-making. They also tend to consult these chatbots before making any decisions. This is very dangerous, both ethically and for personal development, as one becomes unable to make decisions without support. Recent research expressed concerns, stating, “Another critical concern is that addiction may lead users to blindly trust the misinformation output by generative AI and make wrong decisions. In addition, excessive reliance on generative AI can weaken individuals’ creativity and problem-solving abilities, which may lead to a loss of independent thinking and judgment capabilities ” (Zhou & Zhang, 2024). Furthering this point, overdependence on AI makes humans lose their autonomy. “AI chatbot dependence fundamentally shifts a user’s role in their own lives, making them passive observers rather than active owners. As a user’s autonomy or ownership of their actions is reduced, a lack of accountability for those actions often follows ” (Milton et al.,2026, p.9).
The intrinsic battle caused by AI
As society progresses, AI chatbots will inevitably become part of a person’s social support system, but due to the general public’s negative reactions to AI, either individuals will stop using them or use them in private while feeling guilt and shame. A person’s outward actions of not wanting to engage with AI due to its negative social reaction, plus their need to connect with someone who will not judge them for who they are, will inevitably cause a whole cognitive dissonance. This intrinsic battle is something that the addicted population will have to go through in this modern day.
Dr. Garima Rajan
Ms. Ann George
About the Authors:
Ms. Ann George is an Undergraduate Psychology Major Student at FLAME University, Pune and Dr. Garima Rajan is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at FLAME University, Pune.
References
1. De Freitas, J., Uguralp A.K.,Z. O. Uguralp, Puntoni, S. (2024). AI Companions Reduce Loneliness. Harvard Business School.https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.19096.
2. Sabo K., Locke J., Wong J., Lopez P.R. (2025). Alone in a Crowded Room: The Lived Experience of Loneliness Among Teens. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389353087_Alone_in_a_Crowded_Room_The_Lived_Experience_of_Loneliness_Among_Teens.
3. Roos C.A., Postmes T., Koudenburg N. (2023). Feeling heard: Operationalizing a key concept for social relations. PLOS One. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0292865.
4. Zhou T., Zhang C. (2024). Examining generative AI user addiction from a C-A-C perspective. Technology in Society. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160791X2400201X.
5. Milton A., Ajmani L., Heger A., Poursabzi-Sangdeh F., Vorvoreanu M., Suh J. (2026). “Always Want to Use it for Everything”: Understanding Young Adults’ Perceptions of AI Dependence. ArXiv.https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.07592.
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