The Emergence Motivational Themes of AI Companion Use among Malaysian Youth: A Cyber-Ethnographic Study

Abstract

The proliferation of artificial intelligence companion applications has introduced a new form of digital relationship among youth, yet the specific motivations that draw users toward sustained engagement with these systems remain underexplored outside Western contexts. This study examines the motivational architecture behind AI companion use among Malaysian youth through a cyber-ethnographic approach grounded in Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT). Data were gathered through researcher reflexivity, the collection of digital artefacts, and semi-structured online interviews with five purposively sampled informants aged 25 to 28 who actively engage with the Replika application. Thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-phase procedure and facilitated by NVivo 10, identified five interlocking motivational themes: limitation of human connection, personal characteristics, initial triggers, qualities that motivate continued use, and emotional needs and expectations. Findings indicate that motivation is not a single discrete gratification but a layered system in which structural limitations of human connection in the Malaysian collectivist context condition how personal predispositions, triggering events, application qualities, and emotional needs interact. The study extends UGT by identifying a previously undocumented fandom-mediated pathway into AI companion use and by demonstrating that engagement is driven by anticipatory emotional regulation as much as by reactive distress. Implications for digital well-being programming and culturally responsive AI design are discussed.