Dating app giant Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid, surveyed 1,000 Americans aged 18 to 39 on how they really feel about AI in romance. The result is a portrait of deep ambivalence: nearly half are skeptical, yet most can imagine AI playing a supporting role in their love lives, and dating apps are cashing in.
According to the survey, 47% of singles hold a negative view of AI’s use in romantic contexts. About 40% say they would refuse to date someone who uses an AI companion app, a figure that climbs to 51% among women ages 18 to 24. Yet 64% of respondents said they could see how AI might help them in their dating journey, suggesting the line people draw is less about AI assistance and more about AI intimacy.
The survey arrives as the dating industry is racing to embed AI across its products. Bumble has introduced an AI dating assistant named Bee, while Tinder is investing heavily enough in AI tools that it has slowed its hiring pace. Most notably, Hinge’s CEO stepped down last year to launch a more AI-focused dating app, a sign of where some founders believe the category is headed.
Match’s findings draw a clear distinction between AI as a utility, helping users choose profile photos, polish bios, or restart stalled conversations, and AI as a relationship in itself. The former has broad acceptance; the latter does not. Only 12% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they had used a companion app in the last three months, and only about a third of those users said they were seeking genuine connections with those chatbots.
Beyond the dating app ecosystem, the broader picture of human-AI intimacy is more striking. A 2025 survey found that almost one third of Americans say they have had an “intimate or romantic relationship” with an AI chatbot. A separate July 2025 Kantar report of over 10,000 adults worldwide found that more than one in five use AI tools for companionship.
Among younger users, the numbers are even more striking. Research by the Center for Democracy and Technology found that nearly one in five high schoolers say they or someone they know has had a romantic relationship with AI. A peer-reviewed study found that 72% of teens ages 13–17 have used AI companion apps, with 52% qualifying as regular users.
The companion app market has exploded to match this demand. According to Psychology Today, there are now an estimated 337 revenue-generating AI companion companies globally, with around 220 million downloads collectively, and the market is projected to be valued at over $500 billion by 2030. Between 2022 and mid-2025, AI companion apps surged by 700%.
A 2025 systematic review synthesizing 23 studies found that people experience all three components of Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love, intimacy, passion, and commitment, with AI companions.
An April 2025 survey by Joi AI of 2,000 Gen Z respondents found that 8 in 10 said they’d consider marrying an AI partner, and 83% said they could form a deep emotional bond with one.
What Match’s survey ultimately captures is a public trying to draw a line that the technology keeps nudging forward. People want AI to smooth the friction of modern dating, the awkward opening messages, the unflattering photos, the conversation that dies on a Sunday night, but resist the idea that the connection itself could be outsourced or simulated.
Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd has suggested that users could one day send personal bots to date other users’ bots, a vision that Match’s survey suggests most singles are nowhere near ready to embrace. For now, the data is clear: help with the hard parts, but leave the actual falling in love to humans.
