Hint App survey of 9,800 users suggests emotional reliance on AI is reshaping how people navigate stress, support, and human connection.
For a growing number of people, artificial intelligence is becoming more than a productivity tool or source of information. During periods of stress, many now describe turning to AI for emotional support in ways once associated with close friendships, according to new data from Hint App.
The survey of 9,800 users aged 18 to 44 worldwide found that 61% turn to AI when they do not feel emotionally understood by people around them. Rather than replacing friendships altogether, respondents described using AI as a low-friction outlet during moments of anxiety, emotional overwhelm, or social exhaustion.
The findings reflect a broader shift in how emotional support is being accessed and experienced. Around 57% of respondents said AI feels easier to talk to than friends during stressful periods, while 49% said they rehearse emotional conversations with AI before having them in real life. Another 44% said interacting regularly with AI has changed what they expect from emotional support in human relationships, particularly around responsiveness, validation, and availability.
One of the clearest behavioural patterns in the survey involved emotional rehearsal. Respondents repeatedly described using AI before difficult conversations with partners, colleagues, or family members, not necessarily to seek advice, but to test tone, anticipate reactions, or reduce the anxiety of saying the wrong thing. Among users aged 18 to 27, nearly 52% said they sometimes process emotionally charged situations with AI first before deciding whether to involve another person directly.
The pattern appears less connected to trust in AI itself than to growing exhaustion with the demands of communication itself. Many respondents described turning to AI because it offers immediate responses without social pressure, interruption, or the emotional calculations that often accompany conversations with other people. Several users reported keeping AI chats open throughout the workday in the same way previous generations might have texted friends intermittently during stressful moments.
That behavioural convenience appears to matter as much as the technology itself. Unlike human conversations, AI interactions do not require timing, reciprocity, emotional energy, or concern about how often the same anxieties are repeated. The result, according to the survey responses, is that emotional processing increasingly becomes something people do in isolation first and socially second.
The behavioural shift arrives at a moment when emotional exhaustion, digital burnout, and social fatigue are increasingly shaping how people communicate. Across regions, respondents experiencing workplace stress, loneliness, or interpersonal strain consistently described AI as emotionally accessible during periods when maintaining conversation, responsiveness, or vulnerability with other people felt difficult.
Kirill Liakh, Managing Director at Hint App, said the findings point less to emotional attachment to AI itself than to changing expectations around communication. “People are becoming less tolerant of delayed responses, emotional ambiguity, and the effort that difficult conversations often require,” he said. “AI creates an environment where support feels permanently available, emotionally measured, and frictionless. The concern is not that people prefer machines to relationships, but that constant exposure to this kind of interaction may gradually change what they expect from human connection.”
The broader implication of the findings is not simply that people are talking to AI more frequently, but that emotionally responsive systems may be quietly reshaping communication habits that were traditionally developed through human relationships. As conversational AI becomes more integrated into everyday routines, some users appear to be recalibrating what emotional support should feel like and how much emotional effort they are willing to tolerate in return.
In that sense, the shift may have less to do with technology replacing connection than with technology redefining the emotional standards people increasingly bring into relationships with others. The long-term effect may not be emotional attachment to AI itself, but the normalisation of communication that feels permanently available, endlessly patient, and almost entirely free of interpersonal friction.
About Hint App:
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.