May 12, 2026 | In the News

Girls Rely on AI for Companionship, Entertainment Recommendations, and Emotional Support More than Parents Realize

AI has become a fixture in the lives of girls ages 5 to 13, and most parents appear largely unaware of how embedded AI has become in their daughters’ lives, an article in Fortune reports. The story cites a study from Girl Scouts of the USA using data from a custom PR survey conducted by Wakefield Research.

While 51% of girls age 5 to 13 in the survey report using AI at least once a day, only 32% of parents believe their child does. Dads were slightly more accurate at 38%, compared with 28% of moms. Sixty-five percent of girls who use voice-activated assistants like Alexa and Siri say they view them as friends. Additionally, 62% think of AI companions or chatbots as friends. Among those girls, two-thirds have turned to AI for help when feeling sad, upset, anxious, or lonely.

Nearly half of girls (47%) believe AI is better than their parents at helping with homework, and that number jumps to 57% among Black girls. Half of the girls surveyed prefer AI over their parents for song, show, or movie recommendations, and about the same number find AI is better at entertaining them when they’re bored (48%) or at telling a funny joke (48%).

“Many families have been using voice assistants and AI-powered features for so long that they may no longer register them as AI,” Bonnie Barczykowski, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, told Fortune. “Girls may also encounter AI without actively seeking it out: on school-issued devices, in apps, through search engines, and in recommendation systems.”