Longitudinal Study on Social and Emotional Use of AI Conversational Agent
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Apr 19, 2025
Abstract
Development in digital technologies has continuously reshaped how individuals
seek and receive social and emotional support. While online platforms and
communities have long served this need, the increased integration of
general-purpose conversational AI into daily lives has introduced new dynamics
in how support is provided and experienced. Existing research has highlighted
both benefits (e.g., wider access to well-being resources) and potential risks
(e.g., over-reliance) of using AI for support seeking. In this five-week,
exploratory study, we recruited 149 participants divided into two usage groups:
a baseline usage group (BU, n=60) that used the internet and AI as usual, and
an active usage group (AU, n=89) encouraged to use one of four commercially
available AI tools (Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, PI AI, ChatGPT) for
social and emotional interactions. Our analysis revealed significant increases
in perceived attachment towards AI (32.99 percentage points), perceived AI
empathy (25.8 p.p.), and motivation to use AI for entertainment (22.90 p.p.)
among the AU group. We also observed that individual differences (e.g., gender
identity, prior AI usage) influenced perceptions of AI empathy and attachment.
Lastly, the AU group expressed higher comfort in seeking personal help,
managing stress, obtaining social support, and talking about health with AI,
indicating potential for broader emotional support while highlighting the need
for safeguards against problematic usage. Overall, our exploratory findings
underscore the importance of developing consumer-facing AI tools that support
emotional well-being responsibly, while empowering users to understand the
limitations of these tools.
