ToM-CHAT: Understanding how people engage socially with AI companions

Focusing on AI-based companions designed to support physical activity and healthy lifestyles, the project aims to generate knowledge for the design of more socially engaging, human-centred and responsible conversational technologies.

Led by the Digital Business Center at the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR/HES-SO), ToM-CHAT brings together researchers from HES-SO, Università di Torino and West University of Timișoara. The three partners contribute complementary expertise: HEG-FR in Human-Computer Interaction and digital interventions, the University of Turin in Theory of Mind and social cognition, and the West University of Timișoara in linguistics and conversation analysis.

The project builds on data collected during Excero, a longitudinal experiment investigating how AI-powered Simulated Exercising Peers can provide social support for physical activity. ToM-CHAT goes beyond behavioural outcomes to examine what happens at the cognitive and conversational levels. Researchers study how participants attribute intentions, emotions and beliefs to human and artificial peers and analyse their conversations for patterns such as turn-taking, social presence, affective language and expressions of mental states. By combining psychological and linguistic perspectives, the project seeks to better understand the mechanisms underlying social interaction between humans and AI.

An important component of ToM-CHAT is the adaptation to French-speaking Switzerland of the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.), a validated semi-structured interview instrument. The work includes translation and back-translation, expert review, assessment of content validity and pilot testing with French-speaking participants. This will provide both a research instrument for the project and a resource that can support future studies of social cognition in multilingual and cross-cultural contexts.

A collaboration developed within UNITA

ToM-CHAT was initially funded through the UNITA Starting Grant call for projects and will continue through a recently accepted UNITA Advanced Grant project within the Digital Transition Hub, allowing the partnership to consolidate the research initiated during the first phase and further develop its interdisciplinary approach to human-AI interaction.

UNITA – Universitas Montium is an alliance of 12 European universities across seven countries, bringing together more than 250,000 students and staff. The alliance promotes collaboration particularly in rural, mountain and cross-border regions, with an emphasis on sustainability, European citizenship and multilingualism. Its research and innovation activities are structured around three major thematic hubs: Digital Transition, Cultural Heritage and Renewable Energies. ToM-CHAT is embedded in the Digital Transition Hub, which addresses topics including intelligent information processing, cybersecurity and green ICT.

Face-to-face collaboration is an important element of the project. The research teams met in Timișoara from 12 to 14 May 2026, combining scientific discussions, joint analysis and dissemination activities. A second consortium meeting is taking place in Turin from 9 to 11 September 2026, further strengthening the collaboration and defining the next phase of the research.

Beyond its scientific contribution, ToM-CHAT aims to generate practical recommendations for the development of conversational AI systems in health and wellbeing. The project is also building connections with public and private stakeholders interested in translating research findings into more effective, socially engaging and responsible digital interventions.