From digital companionship to capability building: reframing conversational artificial intelligence and older adults'...

The rapid diffusion of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) has reshaped the landscape of digital interaction in later life, with growing attention to its implications for older adults' mental health and wellbeing. Existing research has predominantly interpreted conversational AI through the lens of digital companionship, emphasizing its capacity to simulate social presence, reduce loneliness, and provide emotional support. While this perspective captures important affective outcomes, it offers a limited account of the developmental processes through which AI engagement may influence psychological wellbeing in aging populations. This conceptual analysis proposes a shift from a companionship-oriented paradigm to a capability-building perspective grounded in the Capability Approach. It argues that the primary value of conversational AI lies not in its ability to substitute social interaction, but in its potential to expand older adults' cognitive, emotional, social, and digital capabilities. Building on this argument, this paper develops an AI-Augmented Active Aging Framework that explains how conversational AI affordances, responsiveness, personalization, accessibility, and availability, interact with personal, social, environmental, and system-level conversion factors. Under supportive conditions, these affordances may facilitate cognitive, emotional, social, and digital capability formation, thereby supporting autonomy, competence, social integration, and active aging. Under adverse conditions, however, conversational AI may contribute to capability erosion through over-reliance, cognitive offloading, reduced human contact, or diminished autonomous judgment. The framework therefore emphasizes heterogeneous and conditional outcomes rather than assuming uniform benefits across older adults.