At a Glance
AI tools can ease women’s mental load by tracking health, offering reminders, and providing accessible psychoeducation, but they cannot replace the depth of human connection. While helpful for organisation and reflection, overreliance risks anxiety, detachment, and dependency. Sustainable wellbeing requires balancing AI’s practical benefits with the irreplaceable emotional support of real relationships and therapy.
The Rise of AI in Women’s Wellbeing
We live in a world where technology speaks to us more than people sometimes do. Apps remind us to breathe, trackers tell us how we slept, and chatbots offer comfort in the middle of the night. AI can even remind you to drink water, track your hormones, and send you words of encouragement.
During the pandemic, reliance on technology grew stronger. It kept us connected, organised, and comforted when human contact wasn’t possible.
Years later, many women still tell me the same thing: “These tools help me manage life, but they don’t make me feel whole.” And that raises an important question. When it comes to women’s wellbeing, what’s actually helpful, and what risks leaving us more disconnected?
As a psychologist, a woman, and a mother, I understand this shift personally. I rely on technology myself, mostly to stay organised. It certainly makes life easier, but in my clinical work, I also hear from clients who are turning to AI for comfort or asking AI for advice, only to discover that it cannot always meet their deeper emotional needs.
Many of my patients who are using AI to answer questions about their coping mechanisms and relationships also feel that there’s a human touch that’s missing. I am Dr Sonney Gullu-McPhee, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and ISST-certified Advanced Schema Therapist, and in this blog, I will share some insight into how AI advice can support women’s wellbeing, where it falls short, and why human connection remains essential for real healing.
Contact me to schedule a no-obligation 15-minute consultation call.
Why AI Feels So Appealing
The attraction is clear. Women often carry what psychologists call the “mental load”, the invisible, constant effort of remembering, planning, and keeping everything running (Daminger, 2019). A lot of online advice for women recommends using technology to get some relief from that pressure. A meditation app reminds you to pause and breathe. A chatbot answers worries at midnight when no one else is awake. A tracker logs your mood, sleep, or symptoms without you having to think.
Research supports some of these benefits. Studies show that women’s wellbeing apps can reduce stress and enhance self-awareness, particularly when they encourage mindfulness or reflection (Dolan et al., 2012). For sensitive topics like perinatal depression, menopause, or body image, women find it more accessible and easier to ask AI for advice.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, using AI to answer questions became even more important. With appointments cancelled and social support disrupted, women turned to digital tools for guidance and connection. That reliance didn’t disappear when lockdowns ended. In 2025, we are still leaning on AI for advice, reassurance, and structure.
When Technology Becomes Limiting
Yet technology cannot do everything. Human wellbeing is complex, shaped by biology, culture, relationships, and early life experiences. AI advice tends to reduce this complexity into one-size-fits-all (Topol, 2019).
Sometimes, it can even cause more stress. Over-monitoring health or mood can fuel rumination and guilt, especially for women with perfectionism or self-sacrifice schemas (Young et al., 2003). During the pandemic, constant symptom-tracking created what psychologists described as a “health anxiety loop.” Instead of reassurance, it left many people feeling more preoccupied and less at ease.
In my clinical work, I often hear from women who began using AI to answer questions about stress, sleep, or diet but found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information given back to them. What started as a search for clarity left them feeling as though they had bigger or more serious problems than they imagined. Rather than soothing their worries, the AI advice made them more anxious.
Research echoes these mixed outcomes. Some experimental studies suggest that AI chatbots can reduce feelings of loneliness compared with no support or with purely “utility” bots, largely because they create a sense of being listened to (De Freitas et al., 2024; Harvard Business School). Users sometimes even rate chatbot responses as more empathetic than typical human replies, especially in the short term (Sorin et al., 2024).
But there are important risks. Studies and commentaries highlight that reliance on asking AI for advice can drift into dependency, with some people preferring the “safety” of an AI over real human contact (Springer, 2025; Vox, 2024). Professional bodies such as the American Psychological Association have also cautioned against treating generic chatbots as therapy: they cannot assess risk, detect crises, or offer the relational depth needed for sustained healing (APA Services, 2025).
Why Human Connection Still Matters
AI feels reassuring because it offers certainty. Cognitive research shows that in stressful times, humans prefer quick, clear answers even if they are imperfect (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). For women navigating uncertainty, whether around hormones, parenting, or grief, AI advice can feel like a steadying presence.
But certainty is not the same as healing. Compassion-Focused Therapy reminds us that psychological well-being depends on warmth, safety, and kindness (Gilbert, 2010). Schema Therapy teaches that real change happens when unmet emotional needs are finally acknowledged and cared for.
Here is where technology has clear limits. While AI can track, prompt, and provide information, it cannot engage in the subtle human processes that shape recovery, such as noticing eye contact, emotional tone, or non-verbal signals. Research consistently shows that it is precisely these human qualities, embedded in the relationship between client and psychologist, that predict positive psychological outcomes (Horvath et al., 2011; Norcross & Lambert, 2018; Wampold & Imel, 2015).
This is why so many women tell me that although AI helps them stay organised or track patterns, they still feel unseen. Technology may help us manage life, but it cannot make us feel alive. Real connection comes from the psychologist who hears what you don’t say, the doctor who notices hesitation in your voice, or the friend who simply sits beside you.
Finding a Healthier Balance
If you find yourself relying on asking AI for advice but still feel disconnected, you are not alone. Many of my clients describe being “busy but emotionally flat” using technology to stay on top of things, yet still longing for connection.
AI can certainly have its place in supporting women’s wellbeing, if it’s used thoughtfully. It can help track your sleep or cycles, remind you to pause and breathe, or give you a structured space to reflect. Some people also find it useful for practising skills, such as preparing for a difficult conversation. And in recent years, many of my clients have also found AI helpful for psychoeducation, making sense of psychological terms, simplifying therapy language, or breaking down medical or scientific information into something clearer and less intimidating. In these ways, AI can be a supportive tool, adding structure and perspective to daily life.
However, unlike AI, real human relationships are messy and complex. Loved ones may not always respond in the way we want. They may be distracted, tired, or bring their own emotions into the moment. If we begin expecting others to respond with the constant warmth, validation, or instant availability that AI provides, we can end up feeling disappointed, frustrated, or even overwhelmed.
Research supports this tension. Studies show that people often rate chatbot responses as more empathetic than human ones because they are designed to validate consistently and without conflict (Armbruster et al., 2024; Sorin et al., 2024). But psychologists have long known that the best predictor of long-term women’s wellbeing is not perfect responses. It is the ability to navigate the imperfections of real relationships, using social cues, repair, and acceptance (Reis & Collins, 2004; Lemay & Clark, 2008). In other words, the very challenges of human connection, such as misunderstandings, compromises, and learning to tolerate differences, are also what build resilience and deeper intimacy.
This is where radical acceptance becomes important: Real people will never behave like AI.
They will sometimes miss our cues or fail to comfort us as we had hoped. But these moments are opportunities to practise healthier communication, to read social signals more accurately, and to repair bonds rather than retreat from them. Asking AI for advice can feel soothing in its predictability, but sustainable women’s wellness grows from engaging with the complexity of human connection.
Contact Me If You Need Support for Your Psychological Wellbeing
Sometimes we all reach a point where self-help tools and endless online advice for women just aren’t enough. You may find that asking AI for advice gives you structure or reassurance, but it doesn’t replace the feeling of being truly seen and understood. That’s where therapy can make a real difference.
In therapy, there is time and space for you, not just your symptoms or worries, but your whole story. It’s a place to slow down, untangle what feels overwhelming, and begin to make changes that bring more ease and meaning into daily life. Together, we can work on strengthening resilience, building self-compassion, and finding new ways to connect more deeply with ourselves and with others.
I offer therapy in my private practice in Petersfield, Hampshire, and online across the UK. Whether in person or online, my work is about creating a meaningful space where you feel heard and supported in moving forward.
If you’d like to take the first step, you can call me on 07584 354041, email me at info@drmcphee.co.uk, or book a free 15-minute consultation. Reaching out can feel like a small step, but it often opens the door to lasting change.
And if you’d like to keep reflecting, you may also enjoy my blog Overcoming Loneliness in a Connected World, which explores why so many of us feel disconnected in an age of constant digital contact, and how we can begin to find our way back to real connection.