Conversational AI as Personalised Cognitive Support: Adults With Intellectual Disability's Experiences of Everyday Decision-Making.

Authors

Izaskun Álvarez-Aguado, Vanessa Vega, Miguel Roselló-Peñaloza, Leyre Álvarez Aguado, Karla Campaña Vilo, Jennifer Figueroa Figueroa, Felipe Muñoz La Rivera, Félix González-Carrasco, Felipe Espinosa Parra

Published in

Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR. Sep 07, 2026. Epub Sep 07, 2026.

Abstract

Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform personalised supports for people with intellectual disability by extending assistance beyond task completion to everyday reasoning and decision-making. However, little is known about how adults with intellectual disability experience this technology. This study explored how adults with intellectual disability experienced conversational AI as a support for everyday decision-making.
A qualitative interpretivist study was conducted with 46 adults with mild-to-moderate intellectual disability recruited through six community organisations in Chile. Participants used a conversational AI platform for 4 weeks before completing semistructured interviews. Data were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.
Four interconnected themes were identified. Participants experienced conversational AI as a resource that supported understanding through dialogue, helped them organise their thinking while retaining ownership of decisions, complemented existing support networks, and was considered legitimate only when accessible, personalised, and user-controlled. Participants rejected AI as a substitute for human support, instead describing it as a tool that helped them reflect, prepare for decisions, and feel more confident before deciding.
Participants experienced conversational AI as a personalised form of cognitive support that helped them organise their thinking and approach everyday decisions while retaining ownership of the final decision. These findings suggest that generative AI has the potential to extend existing personalised support models by supporting how adults with intellectual disability engage with thinking and decision-making, highlighting the importance of accessible, user-controlled, and codesigned AI systems.

PMID:
42706704
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Sep 2026.

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