Prevalence and predictors of artificial intelligence chatbots use for caregiving: Evidence from the Understanding America Study

Key Findings

• — Sample: 1,300 US family caregivers in the Understanding America Study, August-October 2025; 487 reported using AI chatbots
• — 25% of chatbot users used them for caregiving purposes
• — Among caregiving users, 58% sought caregiving information, 34% emotional support related to caregiving, 37% other uses
• — Caregiving-related chatbot use was more likely among respondents higher in openness, lower in internet literacy, lower in cognitive ability, helping with more caregiving tasks and more uncertain in their caregiving role
• — Open-ended responses: information seeking was the most common reason; respondents found the support useful while noting limitations

Methodology Notes

Cross-sectional, mixed-methods analysis of a single UAS-CLEAR wave (probability-based panel; poststratification not described in the abstract); self-report; no AI system named; chatbot users are a subsample (n=487) of the 1,300 caregivers. Affiliations: Yale School of Public Health (three authors), USC Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. PLOS publication date taken from the Crossref/PubMed record (2026-09-23).

Sources