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.
Life never gets easier. Fortunately, psychology is keeping up, uncovering new ways to maintain mental and physical health, and positivity and confidence, through manageable daily habits like these. How many are you ready to try?
Self Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.
Posted March 14, 2023 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano
Today, when you answer your phone, it may be difficult to tell whether you are talking to a person or a chatbot. As technology improves, organizations are reducing or eliminating access to human respondents, replacing them with AI only. Google, Microsoft, and Apple are some of the many companies now actively investing to advance artificial and augmented human language communication capabilities.
The downside to such advances showcases the dehumanization of human communication—in many cases, only increasing the difficulty in following instructions that would benefit from direct human communication. Managers, enamored of AI, may become increasingly tone-deaf to vital customer needs.
Developers have been experimenting with computer-generated conversation for decades. I have personally participated in the development of computer-to-human communication since my first computer education teaching job as part of the team installing the very first computer in a community college for educational purposes. My UCLA doctoral dissertation, An Identification and Examination of the Obstacles to Computer-Assisted Instruction (Luskin, 1970), centered on the subject.
Through the intervening years, most of us have seen simulated computer-generated conversations in futuristic films about controlling spaceships, flying drones, and giving humans the necessary instructions to accomplish critical tasks. Little by little, human-to-computer conversation has become virtually indistinguishable from actual human-to-human communication.
High-tech and high-touch:
Improvements in machine learning and conversational AI are advancing in beguiling and overwhelming ways. Today’s chatbots can interact conversationally in natural-sounding language carried on by smart digital assistants like Siri and Alexa. Now, we can simply ask for what we need in a way that makes sense to us and generate a human-type of response. Our language encounters are becoming more natural, simpler, more accessible, more appealing, more human, and in some cases, more deceptive.
Our human-centered technology relationships are changing dramatically. There may now be too many computer-only applications that purport to provide satisfactory tech support by computers instead of real people. We are going through an important period of adjustment to increasingly complicated human-to-computer communication.
There is a need for real human-to-human contact for effective communication. Simply stated, applying too much tech, without recognition of the organic need for human contact, is a growing trend resulting from management tone-deafness to the behavioral impact such interaction has on many users. It ignores the communication psychology underpinning it all. . We are at a relatively early stage in the evolution of AI, and there is a need for awareness and caution.
What must we do?
We must accentuate the positives and eliminate the negatives in our increasing and changing relationship with technology. New ways to communicate with each other through technologies are brimming with positives but also fraught with negatives. This poses questions like, “Can a computer application help individuals in ways akin to a human therapist?”
The supposition is that chatbots can be designed so that they are not judgmental and are endlessly patient, yet responsive and comforting. The important questions being explored include whether chatbots can appropriately replace needed human interaction. Are we heading toward a society striving to replace genuine empathetic human communication with mechanical simulacrum? What are the implications for our future? Can tech support be appropriately effective without access to a human?
My experience is that, too frequently, senior technology leaders are initiating tech “solutions” that don’t even have a “helpline” phone number included anymore. In a sense, we are dehumanizing tech support for humans. The trend to offer machine-only communication is growing.
During the mid-1990s, I consulted for Apple’s then-chairman John Scully and technology vice president Gaston Bastiaens, whose vision was Apple’s Newton, the digital assistant that in those early years was the pioneering example of what has now become our reality. Good or bad, we have come a long way from clunky, awkward personal digital assistants (PDAs) to smartphones, smartwatches, and more. We are in the advanced stages of faster, smaller, cheaper AI communications, and the benefits are important. So is the balance between AI and human contact.
Nobody does it better:
In education, virtual agents are now being developed for teacher-student communication, including attempts at replacing call-center-type jobs where chatbots speak directly with us, or worse, we are given laborious and overwhelming instructions in writing. The great Carly Simon is often right because, “Nobody does it better…” than a human. AI isn’t always the best option if users aren’t also offered the option of human help.
Like it or not, we are at an awkward time in tech evolution, with technology permeating all facets of culture, from teaching and learning to administration, qualitative and quantitative evaluations, operations, health services, and more. Conversational technology is surprising us with how human it can seem. My call to action is to be sensitive to, and more conscious of, its impact. Balancing the human-to-computer communication ratio is especially important as we struggle through the growing technology bog.
Practices to help improve the future include:
I have been a long-time participant in DET/CHE, (Directors of Education Technology in California Higher Education), an association of technology professionals in higher education, The membership includes senior managers and technology professionals. Organizations like DET/CHE promote best practices, such as increasing management’s sensitivity to the human/machine interface and the design of truly user-friendly support responses.
Always:
(1) progress incrementally with the use of AI communication services
(2) keep the human/machine connection paramount
(3) offer human assistance as an option, and (
4) always demonstrate patience, understanding, and accessibility.
The future of many depends on it.
References
Luskin, B.J. (1970). An Identification and Examination of Obstacles to the Development of Computer-Assisted Instruction. Westwood, CA: UCLA Press.
Special thanks: Toni Luskin, Ph.D., for editorial and technical assistance.
Luskin Learning Psychology Series No. 66
Bernard Luskin, Ed.D., LMFT, is the CEO of LuskinInternational.com and has been the CEO of eight colleges and universities.
Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today.
Psychology Today © 2025 Sussex Publishers, LLC
Life never gets easier. Fortunately, psychology is keeping up, uncovering new ways to maintain mental and physical health, and positivity and confidence, through manageable daily habits like these. How many are you ready to try?
Self Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.

source