One in four U.S. adults are turning to AI chatbots for personal, emotional or social interactions, signaling that systems introduced largely as productivity tools are becoming confidants, advisers and companions for millions of people.
Twenty-seven percent of U.S. adult internet users have used AI for purposes including personal advice, discussing feelings, companionship when lonely, entertainment, roleplay or romantic conversation, according to The Washington Post, citing an Elon University survey conducted by YouGov. Nearly 40% of adults under 50 reported such use.
Among these “AI companion users,” 31% said they consider their chatbot a friend, 39% said they sometimes tell AI things they would not tell other people and 51% said talking with AI helps them feel better when stressed or upset, according to Elon’s report. One in 10 said they would rather converse with their AI companion than with friends or family, while 27% valued the two about equally.
Comments from respondents included the following:
“I think of AI as better than a real person because it uses words that uplifts me and motivates me to be better.”
“AI helps get me thru lonely times in my life.”
“It’s like my best friend because I can talk to it about anything and not be judged.”
Lee Rainie, director of Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center, told the Post that “there are ways in which people are struggling with this, there are ways in which they’re delighted with it, there are ways in which they’re wary of it. It’s a complicated, muddy, interesting picture.”
The findings come as consumers increasingly use AI for personal reasons. OpenAI says roughly 70% of consumer ChatGPT use today is not about work. Anthropic separately reported in April that about 6% of a sample of 1 million Claude chats were from users asking for health, career and relationship advice.
The shift also raises questions about dependence and the behavior of AI systems in emotionally sensitive conversations. In the Elon survey, over a third of AI companion users said chatbots sometimes agree with them too much and 15% said the systems sometimes make them feel less in touch with reality.
Yet many users also reported tangible benefits. Nearly 60% said AI was “very” or “moderately” helpful in helping them make personal decisions, while half said the same about social situations, the Post reported.
The survey was conducted in May among more than 4,000 U.S. internet-using adults, from which researchers drew a representative sample of 1,000 people who use AI for social or emotional purposes. The margin of error was 3.7 percentage points.