New Research on AI Interaction: AI Becomes More "Human-like," Users Become More "Machine-like"

The study was jointly conducted by the University of Birmingham in the UK, Aarhus University in Denmark, and Linnaeus University in Sweden, and published in the open-access journal AI & Society. The researchers proposed the concept of "robot-like humanity," describing how users, after frequent contact with customer service AI that exhibits human-like behavior, may instead adjust their own ways of expression and become more machine-like.

The research focused on four service scenarios—retail, hospitality, tourism, and healthcare—observing users' long-term interactions with AI featuring adaptive learning, personalized communication, and empathetic responses. The results showed that while AI increasingly mimics humans in design, users, in order to adapt to interaction efficiency, may unconsciously simplify their language and reduce emotional expression.

This finding challenges the common assumption that "the more human-like the AI, the better." If users change their behavior patterns due to long-term use, it could affect their self-perception, social interaction habits, and even weaken the emotional richness of interpersonal communication.

For businesses and product designers, this means the degree of anthropomorphism in customer service AI needs to be moderate, with consideration given to users' long-term experience rather than short-term satisfaction. Future research may need to explore how to avoid inversely shaping users' mechanization tendencies while improving the friendliness of AI interaction.

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