As a new player I relied on companions to to aid me in PVE as I do not have many people to play with and it is not easy doing every encounter outnumberd. Not everyone plays a 1AP tb shooter.
But it is a good fix, as shown in the picture Kilgore linked.
I will be a bit bummbed out that they will not aid me in encounters that get visited by other players but that is oke, you adapt and move on.