AI and Therapy: Can Tech Really Replace Human Connection?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and therapy are fascinating topics that are gaining more attention every day. Nearly anything we need is at our fingertips today, from managing our schedule to analyzing our sleep and heart rate data. It’s no surprise that coaching and therapy have entered this space of instant answers, so we want to talk about it.
AI and machine learning are behind offerings such as instant therapy chats or on-demand coaching, as well as the increasingly ubiquitous ChatGPT relationship, so many people rely on for personalized answers to the questions on their minds. These solutions promise to help you process emotions, plan out goals and habits, and feel supported without ever talking to a human or being seen.
An efficient, private, and fast option is tempting for busy professionals or anyone juggling too many plates. But here’s the question worth pausing over: Can AI really replace the value of a human relationship in therapy or coaching? Or is it missing the essential connection we can’t outsource to a machine?
We’ll cover the ins and outs of using AI support and how it can be a helpful tool alongside that deeper in-person therapeutic or coaching relationship that’s hard to replace.
How AI Is Being Used in Therapy and Coaching Right Now
Technology has gone places we couldn’t have dreamed of just 10 years ago, with AI woven into social media, virtual reality, large language models, healthcare, and so much more.
The reality: ChatGPT has over 5 billion visits per day.
The use of artificial intelligence went from intimidating and unknown to an everyday, powerful tool that people are learning to trust and use across various platforms and apps that have introduced the benefits of AI.
When we zoom into the mental health and personal development space, some ways AI is being used include:
Chatbots and conversational agents that use natural language processing or generative AI to “talk” through emotions or problems based on the information you input, and answers it can pull from across its database.
AI coaching platforms are designed for workplaces, where employees can access on-demand reflections, journaling prompts, or micro-coaching exercises.
Support tools for mental health professionals, such as confidential session transcripts, predictive analytics, and administrative streamlining, that free up more time for actual client care.
In many cases, these are supportive tools that are broadening access to mental health care and support. AI can provide a bridge for someone who wants to deepen their reflection and self-work between in-person therapy sessions or find cost-effective ways to learn more about themselves.
So if you’re interested in or currently using these tools, we encourage you! What we want to be careful about is when AI is treated as a human substitute, and people begin to rely on these outlets for connection and relationships as an alternative to human relationships.
When AI coaching tools and apps may be helpful
AI has its place where it may offer genuine help as a support tool. It’s important to note the ways it's helping so many in this complementary role before we dig into its gaps in human connection and mental health interventions based on authentic relationships.
A few examples of when you may find AI supportive:
Late-night overthinking: When your mind won’t stop spinning after a stressful workday, opening an AI journaling app or chatbot can help you sort through your thoughts, reflect on patterns, or find language for what you’re feeling instantly. While this isn’t where your curiosity and reflection should end, it’s a start that people may gravitate toward.
Checking in during busy seasons of life: Some wellness platforms leaning on the integration of AI may send short prompts like “What are your individual needs right now?” or “How’s your energy level?” to make tiny check-ins more accessible. Tools like this can be nice reminders of self-awareness when life feels nonstop and help you bring up topics to focus on during in-person meetings with a coach or therapist.
Organizing thoughts: You may come out of a session with your coach or therapist feeling inspired to take action on organizing your thoughts around your dream career, what you want in a relationship, your new year goals, or ideas for nutritious meal prep. An AI chatbot can help you take rough notes or an audio clip and turn it into an actionable format ready to support you.
At the end of the day, the potential of AI comes from its ability to take in anything you share and offer you what you’re looking for in a matter of seconds, but it can’t feel the person behind it all. Let’s take a closer look.
Therapy vs AI: Finding balance for more emotional support
When you say you’re fine to someone who really knows you and wants to see the deeper story, they’ll know not to take those words at face value. Maybe you’re tensing up and not making eye contact or holding your head in distress, which are all nonverbal cues that offer even more insight into what you’re experiencing in your mind and body.
While the use of AI is great for listening to what you tell it, it’s impossible for these tools to really see you on that deeper level. Our tone of voice, intentions, and mood can be lost when we’re interacting only through text.
Here are a few ways an AI system can’t fully meet the human connection of traditional therapy:
Reading emotions in the moment
Imagine you’re telling your therapist about a stressful meeting at work. As you speak, your jaw tightens and your breath gets shorter as you begin playing with your rings without realizing it. This is your body’s stress response in action, and it may offer your therapist the ability to pause and say something like, “I notice you may be feeling this in your body, let’s check in with that.”
AI can respond to your description of what’s happening within your body or how you’re feeling, but it likely won’t challenge you to notice what else might be there that isn’t immediately apparent to you. AI can’t sense your body or stress levels in real time or help you process emotions somatically, or pick up on unspoken symptoms of depression.
Holding space during raw emotion
Imagine you’re crying as you talk about the inner critic that comes up whenever anxiety spikes. As your coach senses this raw emotion with you, they may invite you to feel where that inner critic is showing up in your body, and allow silence where needed to help you process this inner voice that may no longer serve you.
The effectiveness of AI to offer you a positive outlook and a solution may help, but you’ll rarely have those moments of pause in between your reflections to notice what’s coming up and what you need most when answers are instantaneous. It can feel like a rushed experience that jumps too quickly to the answers, without the beautiful moments that add insight to those answers that may not have come up otherwise.
Another way AI may interrupt the natural flow of feeling into emotion is by taking away from the generation of self-descriptions. So, for example, if you’re struggling to find the right words to describe how you’re feeling, that can be a good thing. It captures your emotional state and helps you feel where it’s coming up in your body. AI can make this process easier, but it may cost us that crucial self-insight that can go so far in therapy.
Exploring inner parts and patterns
Imagine, as you’re sharing how uncomfortable it is not to know what’s going to happen with your family after a fallout and history of conflict, your therapist can apply approaches such as parts work (IFS therapy) to call attention to this discomfort as a part of you needing attention. You may be able to explore where this need for predictability and the feelings that come up around the unknown come from, so you can not only approach this family situation but also understand yourself on a new level in life.
AI might know how to offer you further guidance on what parts work is or pull in information that can help you build more understanding, but it's that initial thought to introduce the topic that makes human intuition so important. We like to say therapy and coaching is both an art and a science. AI has a firm grasp of the science, but the art comes from deep intuition and human experience, involving things like pace, tone, and feeling the energy of the person across from us.
Intuitive timing, silence, and reflection
Imagine you’re recalling a painful childhood memory, and it takes you a while to find the words as you relive moments that felt so heavy. The time it takes you to share and the pace you feel most comfortable with are critical to feeling secure and safe in your therapeutic space. Your therapist can sense moments where they need to simply hold the space for you and not jump in with anything just yet. They may also prompt you to see what you need most after releasing so much, and to take gentle care of your whole person beyond the topic being discussed.
The role of AI isn't to capture the level of challenge it takes to share the information you’re giving, and can’t be a human in the room who’s sharing in this heavy moment with you. While getting answers and soothing words will support you, sometimes it's the energy of someone who cares so deeply for you that can welcome these vulnerable moments and approach healing in a whole new way.
Creating shared trust over time
Imagine you’ve had a history of relationship conflict and start asking for advice in your current, fulfilling relationship about the waves of mistrust that come over you. A human therapist will know your story and hold that close as they consider the context that matters to offer you the most well-rounded support. They may recall things you didn’t link to the current situation, and can usually challenge you when it’s in your best interest, with the safety of a trusted relationship.
AI is going to respond to what you say, which means that it may offer you advice on the mistrust that can unintentionally dismiss the way that’s been a part of your life before. You may be sitting there, upset, hearing that there’s nothing to worry about, which can feel really confusing.
Another consideration is that the quality of your AI output is dependent on the quality of your input, and it takes some time to engineer the right prompts to guide the answers you’re seeking. So, for example, if you want to know about some thoughts you’ve been having and get a feel for what you should do, it’s not as predictable to see the tone or level of direction you’ll get. You can be speaking from a dysregulated place and potentially guide an answer that meets that energy, because its primary goal is to give you what it believes you’re looking for, not to care about the long-term relationship.
-> The “Right Time” Myth and When to Start Therapy or Coaching
Risks and biases in relying solely on AI for mental health therapy
It’s essential to consider every perspective when choosing care for your story. AI has significant potential in many areas, but certain mental health issues or challenges can showcase limited access to the level of support they need with tech alone.
That’s why, touching on recent findings from Stanford researchers, as they completed a systematic review of popular AI “therapy bots,” can help paint a clearer picture of long-term risks or potential biases.
Bias and stigma in responses
AI chatbots were found to respond differently to mental health conditions based on what’s presented, showing stigmas toward conditions like alcohol dependence compared to something like depression. AI learns from what it knows and hears most about, which means that more niche conditions or experiences may not see the same level of empathetic response as something more commonly discussed and researched.
Handling crisis
Stanford’s study found that when AI chatbots were given prompts that suggested topics that were more severe, such as suicidal thoughts, responses were given in ways that may interfere with the client’s safety and didn’t redirect toward helpful resources or hotlines. These experiences can be highly vulnerable and critical and depend on the deep levels of care that an in-person therapist can provide, including local resources and safety plans tailored to the individual's presentation.
Interpretation of information
When it comes to the application of AI, the core focus is to answer your questions and offer you support. The best way to do that is to interpret what you want to hear and align your answers with that input. This works well in most cases, but can also skip moments to challenge your thinking or dig further into why those thoughts are there.
For example, if you say, “I’m feeling good, I don’t have much to share today”, AI may not prompt further questioning or look at deeper underlying needs. You could also say, “I think my boyfriend is cheating on me and I don’t know what to do, but I’m convinced.” AI may immediately jump to solutions or processing for that worst-case scenario without pausing to wonder where the distrust stems from in the context of your past and tendencies.
Use of personal data
While AI is often secure and protected, any online share of data can come with a level of risk. Especially when these systems gain more patient data and sensitive data from users, AI applications and virtual therapists can learn from that and start to apply it to the way it approaches others.
These risks can arise when AI technology is relied upon entirely for therapeutic support in deeply challenging moments. We want to continue emphasizing that it doesn’t mean AI can’t support your mental health, but that a human relationship with a trained therapist or coach is critical when you’re reaching out for deep healing and a safe space you can trust to keep your long-term wellbeing top of mind.
Frequently asked questions: Mental health and AI
What are the differences between human coaching and AI coaching?
AI coaching tools can offer instant prompts, reminders, and structured reflection exercises that may be helpful for people who like having a private space to process their thoughts or get quick insights.
Human coaching goes so much deeper. A coach doesn’t just respond to your words. Instead, they respond to your energy, your tone, and your emotional cues. They can challenge you gently, hold silence when you need space, or celebrate your growth in ways that feel deeply personal. Coaches at MT also have a wide array of training and work alongside therapists to offer a deeper understanding and value into the coaching space that goes far beyond prompts or structured outlines.
AI can guide your thinking while a human coach can hold your humanity.
Can AI support anxiety disorders?
AI tools can absolutely play a supporting role in managing anxiety. Apps with calming exercises, journaling prompts, or cognitive-behavioral techniques can help people manage anxious moments between therapy or coaching sessions. They can remind you to breathe, reflect, or practice grounding skills.
It’s important to note that anxiety rarely eases through logic alone, and to soften its grip truly, your nervous system needs to feel safety and connection.
Can AI pick up on early detection of mental disorders?
AI can identify patterns like changes in speech, sleep, or activity that might suggest someone is struggling. These tools can be valuable, but shouldn’t be relied on as a sole measure of someone’s mental state.
Still, early detection isn’t the same as early understanding. Only a human can interpret context, nuance, and emotion that show us the parts of your story that data can’t capture. AI might notice a pattern, but it takes human empathy to ask, “What’s been going on for you lately?” and mean it.
AI and therapy: Navigating the digital mental health age
AI is undoubtedly changing the way we live and shaping incredible innovations. AI and therapy or coaching can work together to create thoughtful check-ins between sessions, offer new perspectives when inspiration runs dry, and help keep things on track when that jam-packed schedule catches up. AI makes support more accessible, bridging a critical gap for people who might not otherwise reach out or know where to go.
At the same time, AI can’t feel with you in the moment, noticing the slightest shift in your tone, the hesitation in your breath, or the way your eyes soften as your truth is spoken. It can however, be a tool used alongside that irreplaceable human relationship you can build with someone who earns your trust and shows you what safety feels like to be exactly who you are.
Meaningful support with a human dedicated to your care on every level means you don’t have to come up with what to say or what to ask. You gain the freedom and flexibility to process over multiple sessions, relying on your therapist or coach to remember what you share, so you’re constantly being guided with thoughtful inquiry and realistic steps.
Most importantly, you can embrace the pace that feels most natural to you and feel the energy of someone who believes in you and sees you at the deepest level.
So maybe the question isn’t “Will AI replace human therapists or coaches?” Maybe it’s “How can AI support the deeply human work that heals and grows us?”
Because the future of mental health may create space for both, working together in balance so you don’t lose the warmth, empathy, and attunement that turn insight into transformation.
