No Time to Say Goodbye: Emotional Loss Responses to Sudden Termination in Immersive AI Interactions

As AI companions evolve from mere tools into relational partners, millions of users are forming deep parasocial attachments. However, the industry currently lacks ethical protocols for termination, often treating the end of these interactions as purely technical events. This oversight can lead to “digital grief” when companions vanish without warning. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N = 26) to test whether forewarning mitigates user distress. Participants interacted with an AI companion before experiencing either sudden termination or advance notice. Results indicated that forewarning significantly reduced the sense of loss (ANCOVA: p =.011, \(\eta ^2_p=.252\)), with the most pronounced effects observed in levels of sadness. Crucially, this intervention had no negative commercial impact, validating it as a low-cost ethical solution with no apparent short-term drawbacks. Users with high levels of parasocial interaction were particularly vulnerable to sudden termination but benefited most from forewarning (d = −1.55 vs. − 0.81). We propose an “Ethical Offboarding Framework” based on these findings. Our study demonstrates that AI ethics must encompass relational endings; “compassionate AI” requires designing not just how agents arrive, but how they leave.