88% of Indian teenagers turn to GenAI tools for emotional support: Survey

AI is fast becoming a go-to mental health support system for young people, reveals a survey by Youth Ki Awaaz and Youth Leaders for Active Citizenship.

The first Youth Pulse Survey, based on over 500 responses, examines how young Indians aged 13-35 are using AI (artificial intelligence) for emotional support. The findings reveal that ChatGPT is the most popular AI tool among young Indians, with 57% using AI for emotional reasons. Over half of the respondents reported turning to AI for support—whether they felt stressed, lonely, or needed advice.

However, this growing dependence on AI also brings certain concerns: 67% of users worry about increased social isolation, while 58% express fears about privacy risks.

Interestingly, small-town youth show deeper emotional engagement with AI than metro youth. About 43% of young people from small towns in the survey said they share personal thoughts with AI, reporting even higher emotional engagement than their metro counterparts.

Key findings of the Youth Pulse Survey

• Over 57% of young Indians use AI emotionally—not just for tasks, but also to vent, seek advice, or cope with loneliness and stress.
• Emotional AI use is highest among school students and teenage girls, with 88% of school students using AI during anxious moments and 52% of young women sharing thoughts they wouldn’t tell others.
• 43% of users have late-night conversations with AI, when human support is least available.
• 40% of young people regularly tell AI things they wouldn’t tell anyone else, treating it as a safe, judgement-free outlet.
• After using AI for emotional support, 42% of youth become less likely to talk to friends or family, revealing a growing substitution effect.
• 67% worry AI could increase social isolation, and 58% have privacy concerns, highlighting a love-fear dynamic.
• Privacy fears are the top barrier among non-users (73%)—even more than distrust in AI’s ability to understand emotions.

Need for safe and healthy use of AI

The survey highlights the need to recognise and address AI’s impact on youth mental health. With teenagers showing the highest dependency levels, schools and colleges must create guidelines for healthy AI use while reinforcing human support systems. The troubling decline in face-to-face interaction following AI use calls for immediate intervention

The report also calls upon policymakers to consider safeguards and quality standards for AI emotional support tools. This includes mandatory disclosure of AI limitations, data protection protocols for sensitive conversations, and integration with professional mental health services for crises.

It also advocates digital literacy programmes that teach young people to use AI as a complement to, not a replacement for, human support.

The gender disparities in AI emotional use highlight the need for creating more inclusive, non-judgemental spaces for young men to express vulnerability, while ensuring young women have adequate human support systems beyond digital alternatives.

Anshul Tewari, Co-founder, Youth Ki Awaz said, "The Youth Pulse findings challenge us to rethink how we approach youth mental health in India. Young people aren't choosing AI over humans—they're finding in AI a space for emotions that have nowhere else to go. The question now is whether we formalise this accidental infrastructure or continue letting young people navigate their inner lives through a chatbot's text box.”

Aparajita Bharti, Co-founder, YLAC said, "AI companies, policymakers, parents and educators must acknowledge this growing trend and think about the guardrails around this behaviour, while we are in the early stages of AI adoption. There is a need to think about safety by design principles for AI chatbots, especially in the context of young people using them.”