Why human empathy is still important in the age of AI

New international research shows that even when artificial intelligence produces the exact same response, people still place great emotional value on empathy that believes comes from humans.

The study, published in the Nature Human Behavior, involved over 6,000 participants in nine experiments.

A researcher led by Professor Anat Perry of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and her PhD. Student Matan Rubin worked with Professor Amit Goldenberg and Harvard University researchers and Professor Desmond C. Ong of the University of Texas to test whether people perceive empathy differently depending on whether they are labeled as coming from human-AI chatbots.

In all cases, responses were created by a large-scale language model (LLM), but participants consistently rated “human” responses as more empathetic, more supportive and more emotionally satisfying than the same “AI” response.

“We are in an age where AI can create empathy for both looks and sounds,” Professor Perry said. “But this study shows that even if AI can simulate empathy, people still prefer other people to really understand, feel and feel that they are careful.”

This preference was particularly strong in emotional sharing and authentic care, a response that emphasized the emotional and motivational elements of empathy. In fact, participants were happy to wait days or even weeks to receive responses from humans rather than responding instantly from the chatbot.

Interestingly, their positive feelings were significantly reduced when participants believed that AI would help generate or edit responses from humans. This suggests that perceived reliability plays a key role in how someone experiences empathy, believing that they have truly invested time and emotional effort.

“In today’s world, the second nature of running emails and messages through AI is becoming,” Professor Perry said. “However, our findings suggest hidden costs. The more we rely on AI, the higher the risk that our words will feel empty. People can generate all their messages, recognize integrity, and therefore the emotional connections may begin to fade.”

AI demonstrates its potential for use in educational, healthcare and mental health settings, but this study highlights its limitations. “AI can help scale your support system,” explains Perry. “But at moments when it requires a deep emotional connection, people still want a human touch.”

This study provides important insight into the psychology of empathy and raises timely questions about how society integrates emotionally intelligent AI into our daily lives.