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What is Competence in Companionship? Communicative Expertise in Grief Counseling and the Rise of AI Companions

PhD projekt of Andrea Heisse

Communicative AI is increasingly discussed in the context of grief counseling, where it is imagined to transform working practices, communication, and the companion relation. Traditionally, grief counselors provide a safe space where mourners can be emotionally vulnerable. Considering the increasing hype around artificial intelligence, it is perhaps not surprising that bereaved individuals are also turning to AI companion apps in grieving. These applications promise users to be a friend, mentor, or partner who is always available to listen.

In her dissertation project, Andrea Heisse provides a sociological perspective on the intersection of grief counseling and AI companionship, studying professional discourses, communicative patterns, and the refiguration of the companion relation. Drawing on her academic background in Communication Science and Social and Cultural Anthropology, Andrea conducts a multi-sited ethnography, collecting and interweaving data from a variety of (digital) fields. With a theoretical background grounded in communicative constructivism, her approach centers on analyzing communication. On the one hand, she studies how grief counselors and AI companion developers envision communicative expertise. How should one talk with the bereaved? On the other hand, she moves from expectations to practice, contrasting how grief counselors and AI companion chatbots interact with those in mourning. Bringing both foci together, Andrea analyzes how the companion relation of grief counseling is refigured through the automation of communication.

With her dissertation project, Andrea hence examines how AI companion applications draw from and influence the profession of grief counseling and potentially change the companionship of bereaved individuals. She is conducting the cumulative dissertation as a research associate in the ComAI project 7 “Personal Sphere: Companionship and ComAI“, led by Prof. Dr. Michaela Pfadenhauer at the Sociology Department, University of Vienna, Austria.