Negotiating Digital Identities with AI Companions: Motivations, Strategies, and Emotional Outcomes

TL;DR

This study explores how users negotiate their digital identities with AI companions like Character.AI, revealing motivations, strategies, and emotional effects through analysis of online discussions, and offers design insights for safer, supportive AI interactions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed three-stage model of identity negotiation with AI companions based on large-scale thematic analysis, advancing understanding of user-AI social dynamics.

Findings

Identified five user motivations for engaging with AI companions.

Mapped a three-stage identity negotiation process involving expectations and strategies.

Revealed three emotional outcomes of interacting with AI companions.

Abstract

AI companions enable deep emotional relationships by engaging a user's sense of identity, but they also pose risks like unhealthy emotional dependence. Mitigating these risks requires first understanding the underlying process of identity construction and negotiation with AI companions. Focusing on Character.AI (C.AI), a popular AI companion, we conducted an LLM-assisted thematic analysis of 22,374 online discussions on its subreddit. Using Identity Negotiation Theory as an analytical lens, we identified a three-stage process: 1) five user motivations; 2) an identity negotiation process involving three communication expectations and four identity co-construction strategies; and 3) three emotional outcomes. Our findings surface the identity work users perform as both performers and directors to co-construct identities in negotiation with C.AI. This process takes place within a socio-emotional sandbox where users can experiment with social roles and express emotions without non-human partners. Finally, we offer design implications for emotionally supporting users while mitigating the risks.