---
id: "claim-therapy-top-use-case"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["¶7"]
tags: ["consumer-ai", "mental-health"]
related: ["concept-emotional-support-ai", "quote-intimate-algorithms", "question-healthy-ai-relationships", "entity-org-filtered"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Marc Zao-Sanders"]
sources: ["execution"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-execution"
originDay: 8
articleStem: "hbr-cl-77-new-data-using-ai"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/new-data-on-how-were-really-using-ai"
sourceTitle: "New Data on How We’re Really Using AI"
---
# Therapy and companionship remain the top AI use case

**Claim (confidence: high · testable):** Therapy and companionship remain the top AI use case.

The social-listening data confirms that **'therapy/companionship' is the #1 use case for AI in 2026**, repeating its top position — the **second year running** — and, per derivative commentary on the dataset, **growing from ~5% to ~11% of the dataset in twelve months.** Users consistently use AI to seek comfort and advice about personal relationships, indicating the technology's stickiest application is **emotional rather than strictly utilitarian or productive.**

This is the empirical backbone of [[concept-emotional-support-ai]] and motivates the ethical [[question-healthy-ai-relationships]]; the stakes are voiced in [[quote-intimate-algorithms]]. The claim is strongly and independently corroborated across the HBR/[[entity-org-filtered]] top-100 use-case work and its derivative commentary — one of the most empirically grounded assertions in the source.