According to Experts.news, regular interaction with artificial intelligence and social robots may gradually influence the way people communicate, perceive themselves and shape their behaviour, according to a study by researchers from the UK, Denmark and Sweden, published on 19 August 2026 in the journal AI & Society.
The authors of the paper, from the University of Birmingham, Aarhus University and Linnaeus University, have proposed the term ‘robotised human personality’ – ‘robotised humanity’. By this term, the researchers mean a possible process whereby, through repeated interaction with AI, a person begins to adapt their own behaviour to the machine’s logic — becoming more predictable, standardised and amenable to algorithmic processing.
This effect could potentially be particularly noticeable in the service sector, where AI is already being used in retail, the hospitality industry, tourism and healthcare. Modern digital assistants and robots mimic human speech and emotional cues, and personalise their responses to build trust and facilitate interaction with customers.
The researchers suggest that this process may be two-way. Machines are becoming increasingly human-like, but humans may also unconsciously adopt the communication patterns used when interacting with machines.
‘The consumer acts, the robot responds, and through repeated interaction, the person gradually adopts this communication model,’ explains one of the study’s authors, Selchen Ozturkjan from Linnaeus University. According to her, people’s natural tendency to mirror the behaviour of their conversation partner can lead to users beginning to replicate the communicative traits of AI.
The authors describe a three-stage mechanism. First, a person begins to perceive their interaction with the AI as a social one. Then, the algorithm forms a simplified digital model of the user and returns it to them in the form of personalised responses. Subsequently, the user may gradually adapt their self-presentation and behaviour to forms that the system recognises more easily and encourages.
One of the risks identified by the researchers is the formation of a kind of feedback loop, in which the algorithm constantly reinforces the user’s characteristics that it already knows. Unlike communication with people, where a conversation partner might unexpectedly object, misunderstand or offer a completely different perspective, algorithmic systems are usually designed for consistency, convenience and personalisation. This could potentially reinforce existing views and reduce the diversity of ways in which people express themselves.
At the same time, the authors emphasise an important limitation of the study: it is a theoretical investigation, not an experiment involving human participants. Scientists have not yet proven that prolonged interaction with ChatGPT, robots or other artificial intelligence systems actually makes people more ‘robotic’. The proposed concept needs to be tested in further empirical studies.
The research paper ‘Robotoid humanness: when selfhood becomes machine-legible’ was published on 19 August 2026 in the journal AI & Society. The ScienceAlert article highlighting the research was published on 31 August.
Research article in AI & Society
ScienceAlert article dated 31 August 2026