Redesigning Mentorship in the Age of AI

We all need a little guidance sometimes. Whether it’s to inform our education choices, guide our career path, or navigate relationship troubles, mentorship and advising are an important part of modern-day life. Traditionally, mentorship has involved a mentor and a mentee sitting together and having a conversation, human to human; the former did the advising and guiding, while the latter dutifully listened and took note. The word itself can be traced back to anNcient Greek mythology, when in Homer’s Odyssey, the character “Mentor” was entrusted with guiding Odysseus’s son, Telemachus.¹ Today, it is widely used in educational and business settings where older, more experienced individuals provide advice to younger, less experienced colleagues or students. 

However, mentorship is undergoing a profound change, primarily due to the rapid popularization of artificial intelligence. Conversational agents (CAs), like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, offer immediate, human-like conversations straight from a person’s phone or smart device—no need to make a phone call or schedule a meeting. Research conducted by Common Sense Media in 2025 suggests that 72% of young people in the United States have used “AI companions” to get advice or discuss personal issues.² And while it can be argued that AI is expanding access to mentorship, particularly for marginalized and vulnerable youth, its use also risks eroding important human relationships and interactions. 

The challenge, therefore, is how we integrate increasingly popular conversational agents with human advising and mentorship so that the former complements, rather than replaces, the latter. It’s early in the game, but new approaches to redesigning mentorship in the age of AI are beginning to emerge, and youth advocates must be prepared to integrate them thoughtfully.