You are right the interaction on Steem is lagging. I do believe that communities will do a great bit to replace that.

As for AI, I will state that it depends upon the task at hand. AI is fabulous at those repetitive tasks which do not require a lot of creativity. For now AI is lagging in that area although it could change soon.

I dont have a link but Microsoft created an AI program that is designed to leave comments on social media. It reads the post and then formulates a pertinent reply.