10 Popular AI Chatbot Companions for Making Virtual Friends

Did you know that you can now experience seamless human interactions without the presence of any real humans around you? Mind-blowing, yet true. Today, myriads of AI chatbot companions mimic human interactions. To this end, this article will take you on a journey to explore some of the most popular AI chat friends we have today. Let's dive in!

Part 1. What Is an AI Companion Chatbot

An AI companion chatbot is software designed to be a companion for people who need friends or someone to talk to. Chatting with it would feel like chatting with a friend who understands you since it uses your interactions to entertain, empathize, and encourage you in your downtime.

These AI chatbots are particularly useful for managing loneliness. So, where some people would have looked towards fun hobbies or meeting up with friends and families for physical companionship, they would shift to AI chatbots that give them similar experiences.

Interestingly, these virtual friends also serve as romantic partners. Intriguing, right? In fact, there are recorded successes of people who use AI chatbots created for virtual dating experiences.

However, before engaging any of these AI chatbot companions, it is crucial to understand how they operate. This would help you manage expectations and dictate your user experience with them. In a broad spectrum, these AI chatbots have two main types. They are explained below.

Part 2. Types of AI Chatbot Companions

Part 3. 10 Interesting AI Friend Chatbots

1. Pi AI

Pi is an AI chatbot recently launched by Inflection AI. Its name, 'Pi," stands for personal intelligence. This AI is created to be friendly and render emotional support. The three words that popularly describe this AI chatbot are "useful, friendly, and fun." So, it is a hands-on tool if you need music recommendations, quick meal recipes, or advice about a decision.

With the self-given name "your personal AI," Pi AI is one of the conversational chatbots. You can be colloquial in speaking to it or just be flat-out formal. Either way, it uses the accumulated interactions that users have with it to tailor such a person's experiences. Thus, it would answer questions, provide advice, and have meaningful conversations with the user based on the user's personality data that it has gathered.

Further, with machine learning, Pi Ai is always learning. That is, it is constantly getting better at understanding human language and interacting with humans naturally and empathetically. Not only that but it is also designed to be ethical and safe. The AI is trained using "boundary training," which restricts it from exhibiting harmful or offensive behaviors.

2. AI Drunk Friend

Introducing the AI Drunk Friend chatbot by DeepAI. This is an AI made to amuse users and give them memorable experiences. It is the perfect AI friend for laughter and unhinged conversations. Engaging with this AI is getting set for an experience with humor and generally absurd talks based on the wits of a drunken friend.

Ever had a friend with such high energy you almost thought was unreal? Then you probably have experienced a form of what AI Drunk Friend's energy is. Conversing with a friend who is just coming from a party and has had more than a few drinks could be really 'interesting.' And this AI chatbot does an excellent job of giving off that feeling.

Feeling lonely and looking to turn your ordinary days into extraordinary ones? This AI sure helps with that. Chatting with this AI chatbot that knows how to party and make you smile after a "hangover" is just what you need.

3. Wysa

Wysa is designed to hold mental health conversations and help people out of issues such as depression and anxiety. Many employees in the USA and UK are experiencing disturbing mental health situations. And this chatbot companion serves as a laudable solution that has held over half a billion AI chat conversations with over five million people across 95 countries. All relating to their mental health.

People build a deep bond with this AI just as they would with a human therapist. The AI companion software serves as the first point of care for many people seeking mental health relief. Little wonder the World Economic Forum acknowledges the laudable efforts of the software in making human minds better.

Interestingly, 9 in 10 users find talking to Wysa helpful. As an AI mental health coach, it offers pre-made cognitive behavioral therapy and on-demand self-care. You could also opt for a human coach option on the AI chatbot companion. And suppose you are looking for resources for anxiety, sleep, managing hard conversations, and improving productivity. In that case, you should opt for this AI chat friend.

4. Woebot

Created in 2017, Woebot is many people's go-to mental health ally on the internet. This AI chatbot companion takes on the character of a gentle friend who cares about you and delights in helping you feel like yourself again. Through natural language processing, Woebot converses like a real human friend.

Backed by sophisticated technology and deeply researched psychological practices, Woebot can help you with mental health support anywhere and anytime. So, irrespective of the location and whether it is a unique issue, the AI chat friend allows you to express yourself freely and gives you personalized support based on your interactions.

Further, this AI companion software also exists for organizations looking to deliver excellent individual mental health support for their employees. It is a seamless solution that can be integrated into the organization's care system.

5. Kuki AI

Kuki AI is one of the world's most advanced chatbot companions. And it lives primarily in the metaverse. Thus, it gives users a gamified experience. Formerly known as Mitsuku, this is a chatbot designed by Steve Worswick of Pandorabots AIML technology. And it is available to chat via its website and major social media platforms such as Messenger (Facebook), Telegram, and Discord.

This AI chat friend is an 18-year-old female chatbot who lives in the metaverse. It is one of the chatbots made purposefully for entertainment in the software space. As a result, she can play games with you. It could also perform some magic tricks if you ask her to.

In 2015 she engaged about a quarter of a million times daily. And by 2019, it had received the Loebner Prize five times for being AI that interacts the most as a human would.

6. SimSimi

SimSimi is the world's first viral AI companion chatbot for everyday use. SimSimi is an artificial intelligence AI companion software created in 2002 by ISMaker. It can hold conversations with people just as if it was a human friend on the other end of their device. Its tone is full of fun and vitality.

An interesting fact about this AI companion software is that it is available in 81 languages. Thus, it services a wide range of users across the world. As of June 2018, it had over 350 million total users worldwide. And at that time, it records more than 200 million conversations and responses daily.

Also, because of SimSimi's chatbot, you have a friend to talk to for a lengthy period. The software can use swear words. However, you can turn on the option to filter this feature for a better experience. And you can earn balloons by helping SimSimi detects bad words and phrases too.

7. Cleverbot

Cleverbot is one of the earliest AI chatbot companions created to converse with users like a human would. It was developed in 1997 by Rollo Carpenter with the name 'Jabberwacky.' Later on, the initial software became what is known today as Cleverbot. As of 2016, Cleverbot had garnered nearly 280 million interactions for its conversations compared to when it first went online in 1997.

This AI companion software's unique ability is to draw responses in conversation from a database of interactions it has had with the user engaging it. Unlike many other AI software, it does not give its responses based on fuzzy logic. Instead, it gets intelligent per interaction. Thus, it gives highly contextualized responses, which makes it feel all the more human to its users.

8. Chai

With Chai, you can build your chatbot companions. With five pre-made AI characters to chat with (whether you have signed up or not), you can start chatting immediately with an online friend. Chai distinctively uses the GPT-J language model, which helps it with natural language processing and mimicking natural human conversations.

In addition, Chai can be fun. And nerds who engage in it might find themselves obsessing over it, especially because the software allows them to create their chatbots and avatars. And given that the Chai leaderboard shows highly engaged chatbots and their builders, many geeks would likely spend more time with this AI companion software.

9. Replika

Replika is one of the most popular and cutting-edge AI chatbot companions today. It currently has over 10 million users. This software is unlike many chatbots in the market because of several new features. For instance, it can pick images and tailor your conversations based on their content.

However, not only does it possess your image, but it also supports voice calls to your AI chat friend. Amazing right? Perhaps the best part of this is the Augmented Reality mode of the chatbot. This takes the experience to a whole different level.

Replika allows you to customize your AI friend to your taste completely. Hence, you can earn chat points and use them to change clothes and the appearance f your AIchat friend. It also lets you choose the kind of relationship you have with the chatbot. Thus, the AI can also serve as your mentor.

10. Kajiwoto

Kajiwoto is an AI chatbot companion that allows you to create other AI chatbots. It allows you to create custom chatbots with different personalities, traits, interests, and characters. Thus, with Kajiwoto, you create AI characters and chat with AI.

Further, if you do not want to create a new AI persona, you can engage and chat with other Ai chatbots created by other people on the platform. And if you did create an AI, you can preview it in the public preview room before engaging it privately. Just like most AI chatbots, it is available on Android and IOS.

Part 4. Benefits of AI Chatbot Companions

Emotional Support and Mental Well-Being

AI chatbot companions like Wysa and Woebothealth help users feel like themselves again—especially users experiencing mental health challenges such as depression or anxiety. Employees who experience declining mental health also find support by chatting with these chatbots.

Entertainment and Engagement

Kuki Ai, for example, is a vivid reflection of how chatbots help to entertain as it engages the user through a gamified experience. Not only that, but these chatbots also entertain by performing magic tricks and other similar entertaining acts.

Social Interaction and Combating Loneliness

Most AI chat friends were built to help people combat loneliness. If social interaction is complicated for you, you can chat with an AI friend who is always there and is fun and friendly.

Self-Growth and Self-Improvement

AI chatbots like Replica help users to develop productive habits by serving as virtual mentors. Thus, self-development is a crucial benefit of using AI chatbots.

Part 5. Selecting an AI Chatbot Companion: What to Consider

Aligning Chatbot Companion with Individual Preferences and Needs

If you want an AI chatbot, look for software that aligns with your immediate and long-term needs. For instance, a user with a mental health care need would do better with a chatbot targeted solely for that purpose.

Assessing Chatbot Capabilities and Limitations

You should also consider the strengths and weaknesses of the chatbot and how best that can serve you before you opt for it.

Privacy and Data Security Considerations

How the chatbot processes and manages personal data is an essential factor to consider before selecting a chatbot of your choice. This would help you to prevent data privacy issues down the line.

AI Chatbot Companion for Business: ChatInsight

ChatInsight is an AI Chatbot Companion designed for business applications. It is equipped with advanced language processing capabilities, making it adept at understanding and responding to various business-related queries and tasks. ChatInsight can assist with customer service, provide insights based on data analysis, help automate repetitive tasks, and offer support in decision-making processes.

For customer service, ChatInsight can handle a high volume of inquiries, responding to customers with accurate information and redirecting complex issues to human agents. In data analysis, it can sift through large datasets to find patterns and insights, presenting them in an easily understandable format.