Artificial Intimacy and Human Connection: A Comparative Study on Student Experiences of AI Voice Feature and Professors in Academic and Emotional Support

This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of seventeen (17) undergraduate students as they interact with university professors and Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT 4o with voice feature, in academic and emotional support contexts. Using a comparative phenomenological research design and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study investigates how students perceive differences in clarity, accessibility, empathy, authority, and confidence when engaging with artificial and human connection as sources. Guided by Social Presence Theory and inductive thematic analysis, findings reveal five (5) core themes namely 1) Clarity and Structure vs Rich Context, 2) Availability and Accessibility, 3) Emotional Presence and Empathy, 4) Trust and Professional Authority, and 5) Impact on Academic Confidence. The results reveal that while an AI offers a cognitive efficiency and emotional safety because of its simulated empathy, professors provide irreplaceable connection or relational depth, embodied empathy, and pedagogical wisdom. Therefore, AI functions not as a replacement or a substitute but as a scaffold that prepares students for more confident human interaction. The study concludes that artificial intimacy, though simulated, plays a transformative role in contemporary education by bridging gaps in access and ease anxiety, strengthening the case for human-AI collaboration in academic and emotional support.