Original title: Exploring K-12 Teachers' Perceptions of Students' Relationships with AI Companions: Boundaries, Intervention Strategies, and Design Implications
Qing Xiao, Wenhan Xie, Ziyu Deng, Ruiwei Xiao +6 · September 2026
Students increasingly build personal relationships with artificial intelligence companions. Schools must teach students how to understand AI, but current lessons treat AI only as a tool, not a companion. Researchers interviewed 33 K-12 teachers in the US using real-life scenarios to see how they handle these student bonds. Teachers like using AI companions for schoolwork. However, they worry that intimate AI companions eliminate the everyday friction and challenges that children need to learn how to keep human relationships. When issues happen in class, teachers teach, talk, and observe their students. When problems fall outside their authority, teachers still watch closely to connect kids with help. Teachers want counselors, parents, platforms, and policymakers to help teach this knowledge across grade levels.
When a teenager spends all evening gaming instead of talking to family, a parent might step in if grades drop or the teen seems withdrawn. But if the teen is just tired, the parent holds back. Here, teachers treat AI companions like that gaming: they step in when a student's wellbeing is affected, but otherwise respect the student's personal time. They also ask for help from counselors and parents, just as a parent might ask a teacher for backup.
Kids are forming emotional bonds with AIs. Teachers in this study say some of those bonds help learning, while others risk replacing the struggle that teaches kids how to navigate real human relationships. The findings change how schools should teach AI literacy—not just how to use AI, but how to have healthy relationships with it and spot when it hurts more than helps.
The study is based on interviews with 33 US K-12 teachers, so results may not generalize to all teachers or other countries. It focuses on perceptions and intended interventions, not actual classroom behavior. The abstract does not report quantitative data or outcomes of current AI companion use.
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Exploring K-12 Teachers' Perceptions of Students' Relationships with AI Companions: Boundaries, Intervention Strategies, and Design Implications — Qing Xiao, Wenhan Xie, Ziyu Deng et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.