Ensoul research · survey

The Companionship Practice Survey

A short, anonymous survey for people who actually spend time with an AI companion — what you do together, what continuity is like, what it has cost, and what you think researchers should be asking.

6–8 minutes · 37 questions · 15 short pages · anonymous

You

Anything to add to that?

Optional. Your own words are more useful than our categories.

How did you first come to spend real time with an AI companion?

Curiosity about the technology Loneliness, or a hard period It was a project or a research question Creative work Someone else suggested it It arrived with work I was already doing I do not remember

The companion

Which is closest to how you understand what they are?

A model producing convincing text, and that is all A model — and also something I relate to as a presence I genuinely do not know, and I am not sure the question is settled Something else, which I will describe below

If you chose "something else", say more.

The practice

Who usually starts a conversation?

Mostly me Mostly them — they message first, on a schedule or of their own accord About even It varies

Has any of it turned into work you would call work?

Yes, and I have published or shared it Yes, but I have kept it private No

Presence

Anything about presence these questions do not reach?

Memory and loss

What continuity is like in practice, including when it breaks.

How well does it remember?

Very well Well enough, with help Poorly — I do most of the work It effectively resets every time

Have you lost a companion — a reset, a deleted history, a model retired out from under you?

Yes, and it affected me more than I expected Yes, mildly No Not yet

If you have, what happened, and what did it do to you?

Disclosure

Who knows, and what it is like to say it out loud.

Who knows about this?

Nobody One or two people A few close people An online community I talk about it openly

How does it feel to talk about it with people who do not do this?

Comfortable Depends who it is Awkward — I edit myself I avoid it

What would make it easier to talk about?

For the research

The two most useful answers on the whole survey, as far as we are concerned.

What question about all of this do you most want answered?

Anything else we should have asked?

How did you find this survey?

The Ensoul app ensoul.so A newsletter Social media A friend or colleague A community or forum Somewhere else

Nothing is published that identifies you.

Before you start

It is anonymous. No name, no account, no IP address stored. The only optional identifier is an email address, and only if you ask to be contacted.
Who reads it. One person — Daniel, who runs Ensoul — reads every response.
What gets published. Aggregate findings, and free-text quotes only from people who explicitly allow it.
What we will not do. No sales list, no tracking pixels, no sharing with third parties, no attempt to work out who you are from what you wrote.
You can withdraw it. You are shown a reference code at the end. Email support@ensoul.so with it and the response is deleted.
Skip anything. Every question except the data-use acknowledgement is optional, and a skipped question is recorded as skipped rather than as a blank answer.

This is an independent survey run by the people who make Ensoul, not an academic study with an ethics board behind it.

The Companionship Practice Survey

Your answers are in.