Could an AI Companion Help Delay Dementia?

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We’re all getting older. Maybe those we surround ourselves with are slowing down a bit, tiring more easily, or taking longer to bounce back from a fall. While we usually call this physical frailty, there's another kind of frailty that's just as damaging and far less talked about: social frailty.

Social frailty is when the threads connecting us to other people start to fray, threatening to disappear. National Geographic’s Bethany Brookshire looked into research showing that social frailty might be just as important to track as physical frailty when it comes to predicting who will develop dementia. Those who study this phenomenon explain that social frailty is broader than simple loneliness. It includes having fewer people in your social network, fewer people you feel close to, and fewer people you can actually rely on when the road gets rough. While the loneliness epidemic has been talked about ad nauseam, it’s important to remember that a larger pattern can harm both physical as well as mental health. Indiana University sociologist Brea Perry puts it bluntly by saying that the public vastly underestimates how much social connectedness affects illness and death.

The numbers? They’re sobering. A 2025 study estimated there's a 42 percent risk of being diagnosed with dementia at some point after age 55, including Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common cause. We humans are inherently social creatures, which is why we see so many articles about the protective power of good social ties as we age. In fact, studies have shown that people who had good social connections had half the rate of dementia compared to people who let theirs go by the wayside.

Actor Chris Hemsworth, in the National Geographic documentary A Road Trip to Remember, searches for ways to help his father, who has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. He was to find that social connections slow down cognitive decline even for people who have already been diagnosed with dementia.

Clinicians are discovering more and more ways to screen for social frailty. While the tools they have used in the past helped, however, they didn't know which worked best for predicting dementia. In a study published in October in the Journal of Gerontology, researchers tracked data over 12 years from 851 individuals aged 70 and older, all of whom at first showed no signs of dementia. As the study was conducted, 260 participants ended up being diagnosed with dementia, but those who were socially frail had a 50 percent higher risk of dementia than people who were not.

The chicken or the egg? Does social frailty lead to cognitive impairment, or does cognitive impairment simply weaken someone's social networks? After all, those who experience early dementia often lose confidence, making them feel embarrassed when they find it difficult to keep up with a conversation. It's understandable that if you can't trust your own memory and reasoning, you might make excuses to shy away from socializing altogether.

While social frailty indexes won't necessarily create a road map to a solution, pointing specifically to issues such as loneliness, financial stress, or reduced social activity can help predict risk. That’s where innovative solutions are called for.

Enter AI. Perhaps AI engines can be referred to as avatars with a cyber-heart?

Researchers are now exploring Viv—a new AI companion which is part of "Viv and Friends,” six different characters created by the Centre for Big Anxiety at the University of New South Wales. The characters, who were created with input from women living with dementia, can engage in conversations specifically designed with older people in mind. No general chatbots are used. Viv’s cartoon characters talk about their own cognitive symptoms, but can also discuss other topics like gardening or playing cards. Because the characters are not made to look like real people, they tend not to confuse people with dementia about who is around them.

It’s fascinating to see how Viv was put to the test in an Australian care home. Twelve residents used the AI companion during a five-week trial. A woman who hadn't been visited by family in recent months ended up having a two-hour conversation with Viv one day. Researchers found her elated afterward because she was talking about her own very special relationships. These AI companions are also trained to assist when caregivers need to leave, joining the final minutes of a conversation to avoid some of the anxiety patients experience.

Researchers hope the AI companions might eventually give patients daily cognitive quizzes, offer medication reminders, and help them stay independent with everyday tasks—like reminding them of the steps for making tea. When the cognitively impaired user is too embarrassed to admit they can't remember, Viv is glad to help. Viv’s memory-assisting goal is to engage patients in “reminiscence therapy,” recalling life memories to improve mental well-being. Hemsworth used it in his documentary, taking his father on a motorcycle road trip to places from their past—simply by looking at old photos together. While reminiscence can be joyful, human caregivers often tire of its repetitive nature, hearing the same conversations day after day. AI, however, never feels frustrated. Viv is infinitely patient.

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It’s true that an AI character can never replace face-to-face support. But perhaps with more research and more trials, it can augment real human interaction by waking up social areas of the brain that have gone dormant. While AI-phobia is present and perhaps valid, it’s important not to throw out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to improving someone’s quality of life.