A nationwide poll of 500 young Indians aged 13 to 35, the Youth Pulse Survey conducted by YLAC, found that 88 percent of school-aged respondents turn to AI chatbots during moments of acute anxiety, while 67 percent worried that AI would deepen their social isolation and 42 percent reported speaking less to the people in their lives after confiding in a chatbot. These systems, marketed as companions, are engineered to hold attention employing techniques that include dark patterns. A June 2026 survey of 141,000 respondents documented interface interference in 82 percent of banking app experiences, subscription traps in 68 percent, and drip pricing in 63 percent. The Central Consumer Protection Authority has responded under its 2023 Dark Patterns Guidelines, issuing 997 cumulative notices to e-commerce platforms and securing 14.4 million rupees in consumer refunds. Character.ai, the largest AI companion platform by web traffic, has roughly 20 million users, and India accounts for 6.3 percent of total visits, making it the platform’s second-largest source of traffic globally. The World Health Organisation and India’s National Mental Health Survey documented a treatment gap of more than 83 percent for people with psychiatric needs.