As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in the lives of university students, a growing number of young adults are turning to AI-driven platforms—such as Meta’s WhatsApp chatbot and ChatGPT—for companionship, emotional support, decision-making, and even therapeutic conversations. This conceptual paper explores this emerging trend through the ethics of care and an ubuntu-informed lens, reflecting on how it is reshaping the ways students navigate loneliness, care, and connection on campus.Drawing on literature, this paper examines the trends in how university-aged individuals use AI chatbots as a first line of emotional or psychological support. It also considers growing research on loneliness, disconnection, and the erosion of deep relational bonds among young people. From this literature, three key research questions emerge for further exploration: (1) Are AI platforms becoming substitutes for human care in environments where time and space for relationships are shrinking? (2) Does the anonymity and safety of AI discourage the vulnerability necessary for genuine human connection? (3) Are students experiencing emotional support while remaining relationally disconnected?Guided by Ubuntu Theory and the Ethics of Care, the paper argues that AI may offer convenience but cannot replicate the mutual responsibility, ethical accountability, and relational depth embedded in traditional care systems – family, friendship, and community. It cautions that the increasing personification of AI risks replacing the very human connections that Ubuntu compels us to nurture.The paper invites student support staff and mental health practitioners to reflect on how their services can evolve to remain relationally relevant while responding to digital shifts, without surrendering the communal principles that make healing possible.

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