Can Chatbots Provide Emotional Support?

hey! I was in a company where one girl was jokingly advised to talk to some AI chatbot to overcome stage fright. I became curious, I googled it and now people are writing that chatbots can actually be used to work through some fears of society. like stage fright, lack of attention, feelings of loneliness, depression, all that kind of stuff. do you think this is real or just for advertising? have you had experience communicating with such a chatbot that provided you with emotional support? this sounds so strange, because neural networks do not feel and these are just advanced programs…