When AI Becomes a Dating Alternative
The panel behind the paper records every app that comes to the screen of 296,311 Android phones in the United States, from May 2021 to June 2024. These are the people who used dating apps and the people who used three kinds of AI app.
Dating apps against AI companions
From the same phones, 30,886 dating app users and 8,196 users of AI companion apps such as Replika and Character.AI. The paper also follows 8,343 users of general AI assistants and 1,132 users of AI girlfriend apps.
Abstract
Consumers increasingly use generative AI tools for advice and social support, raising a broader question for marketing: how does AI affect participation in markets built around human connection? We examine this question in the context of dating apps. The effect of AI adoption on dating-app use is ambiguous. AI may increase dating-app use by helping consumers communicate more effectively; have little effect because dating apps provide access to real romantic and sexual partners; or decrease use by satisfying some of the social and emotional needs that motivate consumers to use dating apps. Using longitudinal smartphone app-usage data from 2022 to 2024, we exploit staggered adoption timing among dating-app users who eventually adopt AI apps, with not-yet-treated adopters serving as the comparison group. AI-app use causes a decline in dating-app use: minutes used decline by 54% and app opens decline by 62%. Survey evidence suggests the reduction extends to in-person dating and is strongest among consumers who use AI for emotional support; among those who experience dating apps as laborious; and among those with weaker physical or casual dating goals. These findings suggest that AI may shape not only how consumers participate in markets, but whether they participate at all.