“I Want to Continue the Conversation, But She's Gone”: The Gap Between Transactional Utility and Social Companionship in VHA Adoption by Older Adults

As conversational AI becomes ubiquitous, Virtual Home Assistants (VHAs) are increasingly deployed to support aging-in-place. While the functional utility of these devices is well-documented, their potential to mitigate loneliness among older adults remains contested. This paper presents findings from an eight-week qualitative study examining the domestication of Amazon Echo Dots by older adults living alone. Through post-deployment interviews, we investigate how participants negotiate the device's utility, social presence, and role in their daily lives. Our findings reveal a complex trajectory of adoption: while participants successfully integrated the VHA as a critical tool for Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) and safety (e.g., environmental control for fall prevention), they largely rejected it as a direct remedy for loneliness. Instead of functioning as a companion, the device acted as an asocial proxy, facilitating connections to the outside world while failing to sustain the reciprocal, multi-turn dialogue required for genuine social bonding. We identify a learning runway heavily dependent on intergenerational scaffolding and highlight an interaction gap where the lack of conversational context fractures the illusion of social presence. We contribute a nuanced understanding of how older adults perceive AI companionship, arguing that future designs must prioritize phatic communication and proactive engagement to bridge the gap between transactional utility and emotional support. These insights offer critical design implications for developing age-inclusive conversational interfaces that move beyond command-and-control models to support the psycho-social well-being of older adults.