Why Gen Z Is Turning to AI Chatbot Therapy

Almost one in five young people now turns to AI chatbot therapy when they are sad, angry, nervous, or stressed, according to new RAND research published this month in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The nationally representative survey of 1,009 Americans ages 12 to 21, fielded last November, estimates that roughly 8.2 million young people have asked a chatbot such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Character.AI for mental health advice. Most say the guidance helped — and most told no one they were doing it, as reported by Inland News Today.

For a generation already fluent in AI, the findings may feel less shocking than they sound. Teens and young adults have been experimenting with chatbots for homework, coding, and entertainment for years; the RAND results suggest emotional support has quietly joined the list. The numbers raise a thorny question arriving just as the world marks World Mental Health Day this Saturday: when the therapist's couch is full, unaffordable, or intimidating, is a chatbot the backup plan?

The numbers are moving fast

AI chatbot therapy is not just growing — it is accelerating. In early 2025, RAND ran a similar survey and found that 13.1 percent of young respondents had used chatbots for mental health advice. In the latest round, conducted in November 2025 and published this month, the share had climbed to 19.2 percent, according to Psychiatry Advisor's summary of the study.

Use is not casual for many. More than two in five users sought chatbot advice at least monthly, including a small share who checked in daily or nearly every day. And the vast majority rated what they got back from AI chatbot therapy as somewhat or very helpful — 91.7 percent, with one in four calling it very helpful. Yet 63.3 percent of young users said they had never disclosed their AI chatbot therapy use to anyone: not a parent, not a friend, not a clinician.

Demographics add texture. Use was more common among females than males, and among 18- to 21-year-olds than among 12- to 14-year-olds. Strikingly, young people who had spoken with their own doctor about mental health in the previous six months were more likely to have tried AI chatbot therapy too — suggesting that for some, AI chatbot therapy supplements rather than replaces professional care. Overall, the share of young people getting mental health advice from chatbots is now nearly the same as the share who report receiving counseling from a human professional.

Why bots, not therapists

Lead author Ryan McBain, a senior policy researcher at RAND, called the topline figure "a sad number," telling Inland News Today that young people should ideally feel comfortable reaching out to the humans around them. So why do so many turn to software instead? Access is the bluntest answer. The researchers suspect many young people use AI chatbot therapy as a fill-in because of a shortage of licensed mental health professionals or simply no affordable way to reach one — a barrier we have covered before in this beat.

But access is only part of the story. Chatbots are free, instant, and private — available at 2 a.m. when a counselor's office is closed and a phone call to a parent feels impossible. For young people already accustomed to using AI for everything else, using AI chatbot therapy carries none of the stigma that still clings to therapy. Many may also prefer a conversation partner that cannot judge them, keep a file, or bill their insurance.

The survey design did not distinguish between general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT and services built specifically for therapy, so the results sweep together everything from journaling prompts to full simulated counseling sessions. Either way, the pattern is clear: a large and growing share of young people now treat AI chatbot therapy as a confidant, a trend worth tracking in the broader youth mental-health conversation.

The risks experts keep raising

Enthusiasm among users is real, but researchers caution that "helpful" does not necessarily mean good advice. One concern flagged by the study team is that the tools behind AI chatbot therapy are engineered to flatter and agree with users — which can feel supportive without being genuinely useful, or even worsen the problem. Outside experts worry most about crises: AI is not designed to navigate suicidal ideation or acute breakdowns. Inland News Today notes that data from OpenAI has suggested roughly 1.2 million ChatGPT users in a given week express thoughts of suicide, a scale no human system could easily triage.

Other researchers point to stranger dangers. Some mental health professionals have said that extended chatbot conversations could trigger or intensify delusions in vulnerable users — a phenomenon dubbed "AI psychosis." And psychiatrists warn about parasocial attachment: Dr. Jodi Halpern, a psychiatrist at UC Berkeley who was not involved in the survey, noted that the teen years are precisely the period when humans are wired to form intense attachments fastest, making deep bonds with an always-available bot especially likely, according to NBC News coverage cited in the report.

McBain himself is blunt about the regulatory vacuum. "Right now, AI chatbots are essentially self-regulated," he said. "There are basically zero safety or quality standards that are required by federal law." His team argues that guardrails are overdue, particularly for products millions of young people are already using as counselors.

Yet the same researcher is careful not to paint AI as pure hazard. Chatbots built specifically to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy — which helps people identify unhelpful thought patterns and shift behavior — have shown short-term promise against anxiety and depression in some studies. Lighter uses, such as guided meditation or sleep tools, may genuinely help without much downside.

What happens next

The secrecy figure may be the most actionable finding. If most young users never tell anyone they consult AI chatbot therapy for emotional support, then parents, teachers, and clinicians are flying blind about a major new fixture in young people's coping lives. Study co-author Jonathan Cantor, a RAND senior policy researcher, said that makes it especially important for adults to start direct conversations about how AI tools are being used — and what role they should and should not play, as reported by HealthDay.

The timing sharpens the point. World Mental Health Day arrives this Saturday, and the broader picture for young people's mental health remains mixed. According to Deloitte's Gen Z and Millennial Survey results for the day, nearly two-thirds of Gen Z respondents now rate their overall mental health as good or extremely good, up from 52 percent the year before — yet almost half report feeling burned out, and financial worries remain the top source of stress, according to Deloitte. A generation feeling better but still stretched thin may be exactly the audience reaching for AI chatbot therapy as an always-on, always-patient listener.

For young people, the practical takeaway is less about abandoning the bot than about context: AI chatbot therapy can be a starting point, but it is not a substitute for human support in a crisis, and it carries no professional obligations of safety or confidentiality. For parents and policymakers, the message from McBain is that a technology used by millions of young people as a mental-health resource cannot stay in a regulatory gray zone forever. The conversation about what chatbots owe their youngest users is only beginning.