This was primed for a meet-cute. At a Delhi café, Parikh walked in to fulfill the lawyer who, fortunately, appeared like his pictures. However he might barely string a sentence in English. How might he be the particular person she had been chatting with on Hinge? She quickly realised to her shock that she had been speaking to a bot—that the lawyer had been utilizing AI to craft real-time conversations. She fled.
Yasmin Tinwala, a Mumbai-based social media strategist, who shared the story of her pal Parikh, says: “Loads of males wrestle to specific feelings and now AI is changing into a crutch—to get matches, sound fascinating, say the proper factor.”
Zubair Sher Singh Kalsia, a Mumbai-based hospitality skilled, says a witty repartee is the naked minimal he expects from a date. So he was delighted when he met somebody who, on textual content, was articulate, humorous, partaking. However the man he met for a drink felt like a stranger: flat and terse. “I felt I used to be sitting reverse somebody I’d by no means even spoken to,” says Kalsia, including that the issue is exacerbated in queer relationship as there’s already a baseline degree of wariness. “While you add AI to that blend, it seems like one other layer of ambiguity.” You aren’t simply questioning in regards to the particular person however how a lot of what you might be experiencing is even them.
ET BureauTHREE’S A CROWD
Courting in 2026 is not about two folks. Artificial intelligence sits proper within the center. As AI orchestrates the brand new human dance of mating, the fatigue round on-line relationship segues right into a distrust about connections. Whereas earlier daters have been involved about filtered pictures and borrowed traces, now they’re confronted with an LLM-trained lover who activates AI-generated linguistic allure on the push of a bot.
In on-line relationship, the place textual content performs a serious position, it’s comprehensible that some would want AI’s serving to hand. However there are individuals who outsource total conversations to AI, says Arunav Gupta, Delhi-based relationship coach and founding father of The BroThing. Gupta has been instructing males thus far since 2015.
His three-month programme prices ₹20,000-30,000 for on-line programs, and ₹1.5-3.5 lakh for offline teaching. Now, he’s additionally calling in AI to assist out.
ET BureauGupta is about to launch Flirt.AI, an AI-assisted app that acts like a wingman. Educated on actual conversations of shoppers, it tells males why a message works, break a sample and hold conversations partaking. “Purchasers can add screenshots of chats, and AI will analyse and recommend frameworks, not scripts. The thought is to show males assume, not what to repeat,” says Gupta. “We restrict utilization. After per week, we encourage the shoppers to cease counting on the app and apply what they’ve discovered.”
Not all AI in relationship is a villain.
In early April, Bengaluru-based Ishaan Gupta, Vinit Sarode and Jayanth Emmadi launched Wavelength, a relationship app that makes use of AI to optimise matches. Its beta model has already notched up 6,000 customers. Says Emmadi: “The thought got here from a shared frustration about swipe-based dating apps that fail to showcase one’s character.”
ET BureauThe net relationship scene is prepared for a shakeup. Can the proper use of AI assist it? For now, many are simply exasperated.
Journalist Adrija Bose, who has been on the apps, says, “Profiles and conversations are beginning to sound the identical. The prompts, the solutions, even the humour really feel repetitive. As somebody who edits for a residing, I recognise AI immediately.” So do most customers.
AI HEART YOU
Fathima Abdul Kader, a 31-year-old journalist from Kochi, says the usage of AI is pervasive. “Bios and opening traces are largely AI-generated. I don’t assume that needs to be vilified, nevertheless it’s laborious to not decide when opening traces appear copy-pasted.” The place’s the individuality, ask daters. Deeksha Chauhan (identify modified), a PR skilled from Bengaluru, says she obtained 10 messages on a single day that sounded simply the identical, as if generated by the identical immediate.
ET BureauGupta says males are below strain. In a seminar with 400 males, solely 10 stated they bought greater than 10 matches in per week. “Courting is a ability that the majority males have by no means honed. Practically 80% lack that social muscle,” he says.
AI might assist them stand out—however to what extent? Akshay Vishal (identify modified), a 27-year-old techie from Delhi, says that in his early days on Hinge, he used ChatGPT for suggestions on his bio, which helped. He’s now off Hinge, having discovered a associate, however he says he is aware of individuals who use AI for voice notes. “Even one thing that’s imagined to really feel actual is engineered. It has turn out to be laborious to inform what’s real and what’s not.”
Hariharan G is a Chennai-based relationship coach who cofounded DateWise together with his pal Kishore Kumar. Their on-line course prices ₹20,000-30,000. In addition they have offline bootcamps and plan to arrange wingman networks on their Skool group. His suggestions: “Use AI to refine, not substitute, you. It needs to be an assistive software, not your character. It’s a must to present up as your self in actual life.”
AI can also be a lite relationship coach as it could recommend very best dates and plan inside a funds. It could not at all times work, although. Bose says she as soon as met a man who stated ChatGPT suggested him to not drop her house on the primary date, and he took it as gospel fact.
A survey performed by Match.com in July 2025 discovered the usage of AI by singles in US has grown by 333% over the earlier yr. Whereas relationship web sites and apps present AI tools to assist, daters financial institution on the large AI platforms and even AI help on Grammarly.
IT HELPS, TOO
Bengaluru-based inventive head Richa Jain says AI has some positives. “It may assist folks construct character, discover widespread floor, discover pursuits and go deeper into issues they wouldn’t in any other case.
When you’re not into one thing like jazz or sports activities, AI might help you be taught and present up higher. As a software for self-improvement or skill-building, it could make relationship extra fascinating.” The opposite aspect, she fears, is that it creates the expectation of perfection. “When everybody begins sounding smarter and wittier, your baseline shifts. Actual folks begin to really feel underwhelming, and that makes you lose curiosity in relationship altogether.”
Whereas Indian research on relationship are missing, Ravi Mittal, founding father of homegrown relationship app QuackQuack, says AI ranges the enjoying area for many who don’t have a manner with phrases and offers them confidence. “Whereas folks assume that an excessive amount of dependence on AI may make issues a bit impersonal, in our expertise, it has solely made the younger crowd extra assured in approaching matches,” he says. What separates innocent “assistive” use of AI from deception is intention, he says. The individuals who profit essentially the most from AI use are newbies.
OUT OF DATE
Priya Joshi (identify modified), a Delhi-based advertising and marketing head, says relationship in a single’s 40s may be very totally different from relationship in a single’s 20s, which means one doesn’t have time to waste. And each AI-enabled profile is wasted time, she says. “Males wrestle for visibility on these apps, so there’s this push to current a greater model. However it seems like a betrayal.”
Chauhan, who’s on The League and Hinge, says it’s worse if you pay for a premium model and nonetheless find yourself with AI. “When you’re paying premium—which is the naked minimal to function sanely in India—and shelling ₹1,499 a month or ₹9,000-plus for curated apps, it’s irksome to waste it on AI.” She says she would reasonably go for an organized marriage!
Shruti, a Kochi-based content material creator, says the entire relationship expertise is exhausting and overwhelming: “Conversations stretch on, deep emotional depth builds over textual content, nevertheless it’s not on a strong basis when AI is at play.” She has lower down on her texting time and tries to maneuver to a bodily date inside two-three days. A face-to-face encounter appears the one technique to shake off worries a couple of manipulative AI persona.
Says Bose: “It seems like folks aren’t utilizing their brains, and that the ‘social muscle’ of determining reply or categorical your self is getting weaker.”
She’s not unsuitable. Nirali Bhatia, a Mumbai-based cyber psychologist, says a chatbot is flawless—it validates emotions, says the proper issues and has no emotional ups and downs: “While you chat with a bot, it’s possible you’ll sense a purple flag. However emotionally it’s so satisfying that your guard lowers.” Nonetheless, a chatbot can exploit vulnerabilities like loneliness and, in youthful folks, it could create a way of false intimacy and misplaced belief. It may be notably dangerous for customers who lack digital consciousness. “Over time, getting used to excellent conversations can create unrealistic expectations. And people utilizing AI-assisted flirting can lose the flexibility to assume on their very own,” says Bhatia.
A specific amount of curation has at all times been a part of relationship. All of us select what to disclose and current ourselves, says Dr Rachna Khanna Singh, founder, Thoughts & Wellness Studio, Delhi. “The priority is not only about factual dishonesty, however a mismatch in emotional authenticity. When somebody feels deeply understood on-line however encounters a really totally different particular person offline, the rupture can really feel disorienting.” Singh says the distrust reveals up in refined methods, like changing into extra guarded. “The response to a realisation {that a} dialog was AI-assisted is usually much less about anger and extra about confusion and self-doubt. As a result of what makes AI-related experiences advanced is that the emotional funding was actual, even when the interplay wasn’t.” Over time, repeated experiences can result in belief points and emotional fatigue.
The actual hazard, says Bhatia, just isn’t fraud as that may be tackled with consciousness however irreversible behavioural shift the place we get comfy with outsourcing our emotional labour to expertise.
Whereas daters usually are not blissful, choices are few. Kader is again on the app after a break. “I’m wondering why I’m even on it if somebody can’t take the time to have a dialog with out AI. Is that this the one alternative I’ve now?” There aren’t any straightforward solutions.