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It seemed like a good day on Hinge when Delhi-based doctor, Anjali Parikh (name changed), matched with a lawyer. His profile was on point. He didn’t open with a cheesy line. His chats were witty and insightful—from self-deprecating jokes to amusing details of his travels. Following regular dating hygiene, Parikh combed his Instagram and LinkedIn pages. Necessary photos and screenshots were shared among her girl gang for a collective vetting. Everything checked out.
This was primed for a meet-cute. At a Delhi café, Parikh walked in to meet the lawyer who, thankfully, looked like his photos. But he could barely string a sentence in English. How could he be the person she had been chatting with on Hinge? She soon realised to her shock that she had been talking to a bot—that the lawyer had been using AI to craft real-time conversations. She fled.
Yasmin Tinwala, a Mumbai-based social media strategist, who shared the story of her friend Parikh, says: “A lot of men struggle to express emotions and now AI is becoming a crutch—to get matches, sound interesting, say the right thing.”
Zubair Sher Singh Kalsia, a Mumbai-based hospitality professional, says a witty repartee is the bare minimum he expects from a date. So he was delighted when he met someone who, on text, was articulate, funny, engaging. But the man he met for a drink felt like a stranger: flat and terse. “I felt I was sitting opposite someone I’d never even spoken to,” says Kalsia, adding that the problem is exacerbated in queer dating as there’s already a baseline level of wariness. “When you add AI to that mix, it feels like another layer of ambiguity.” You are not just wondering about the person but how much of what you are experiencing is even them.
In online dating, where text plays a major role, it’s understandable that some would need AI’s helping hand. But there are people who outsource entire conversations to AI, says Arunav Gupta, Delhi-based dating coach and founder of The BroThing. Gupta has been teaching men to date since 2015.
His three-month programme costs ₹20,000-30,000 for online courses, and ₹1.5-3.5 lakh for offline coaching. Now, he is also calling in AI to help out.
Gupta is about to launch Flirt.AI, an AI-assisted app that acts like a wingman. Trained on real conversations of clients, it tells men why a message works, how to break a pattern and how to keep conversations engaging. “Clients can upload screenshots of chats, and AI will analyse and suggest frameworks, not scripts. The idea is to teach men how to think, not what to copy,” says Gupta. “We limit usage. After a week, we encourage the clients to stop relying on the app and apply what they have learned.”
Not all AI in dating is a villain.
In early April, Bengaluru-based Ishaan Gupta, Vinit Sarode and Jayanth Emmadi launched Wavelength, a dating app that uses AI to optimise matches. Its beta version has already notched up 6,000 users. Says Emmadi: “The idea came from a shared frustration about swipe-based dating apps that fail to showcase one’s personality.”
The online dating scene is ready for a shakeup. Can the right use of AI help it? For now, many are just exasperated.
Journalist Adrija Bose, who has been on the apps, says, “Profiles and conversations are starting to sound the same. The prompts, the answers, even the humour feel repetitive. As someone who edits for a living, I recognise AI instantly.” So do most users.
Gupta says men are under pressure. In a seminar with 400 men, only 10 said they got more than 10 matches in a week. “Dating is a skill that most men have never honed. Nearly 80% lack that social muscle,” he says.
AI could help them stand out—but to what extent? Akshay Vishal (name changed), a 27-year-old techie from Delhi, says that in his early days on Hinge, he used ChatGPT for feedback on his bio, which helped. He is now off Hinge, having found a partner, but he says he knows people who use AI for voice notes. “Even something that’s supposed to feel real is engineered. It has become hard to tell what’s genuine and what’s not.”
Hariharan G is a Chennai-based dating coach who cofounded DateWise with his friend Kishore Kumar. Their online course costs ₹20,000-30,000. They also have offline bootcamps and plan to set up wingman networks on their Skool community. His tips: “Use AI to refine, not replace, you. It should be an assistive tool, not your personality. You have to show up as yourself in real life.”
AI is also a lite dating coach as it can suggest ideal dates and plan within a budget. It may not always work, though. Bose says she once met a guy who said ChatGPT advised him not to drop her home on the first date, and he took it as gospel truth.
A survey conducted by Match.com in July 2025 found the use of AI by singles in US has grown by 333% over the previous year. While dating websites and apps provide AI tools to help, daters bank on the big AI platforms and even AI assistance on Grammarly.
IT HELPS, TOO
Bengaluru-based creative head Richa Jain says AI has some positives. “It can help people build personality, find common ground, explore interests and go deeper into things they wouldn’t otherwise.
If you’re not into something like jazz or sports, AI can help you learn and show up better. As a tool for self-improvement or skill-building, it can make dating more interesting.” The other side, she fears, is that it creates the expectation of perfection. “When everyone starts sounding smarter and wittier, your baseline shifts. Real people start to feel underwhelming, and that makes you lose interest in dating altogether.”
While Indian studies on dating are lacking, Ravi Mittal, founder of homegrown dating app QuackQuack, says AI levels the playing field for those who don’t have a way with words and gives them confidence. “While people assume that too much dependence on AI might make things a bit impersonal, in our experience, it has only made the young crowd more confident in approaching matches,” he says. What separates harmless “assistive” use of AI from deception is intention, he says. The people who benefit the most from AI use are newbies.
Chauhan, who is on The League and Hinge, says it is worse when you pay for a premium version and still end up with AI. “When you are paying premium—which is the bare minimum to operate 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 rather go for an arranged marriage!
Shruti, a Kochi-based content creator, says the whole dating experience is exhausting and overwhelming: “Conversations stretch on, deep emotional intensity builds over text, but it’s not on a solid foundation when AI is at play.” She has cut down on her texting time and tries to move to a physical date within two-three days. A face-to-face encounter seems the only way to shake off worries about a manipulative AI persona.
Says Bose: “It feels like people aren’t using their brains, and that the ‘social muscle’ of figuring out how to respond or express yourself is getting weaker.”
She’s not wrong. Nirali Bhatia, a Mumbai-based cyber psychologist, says a chatbot is flawless—it validates feelings, says the right things and has no emotional ups and downs: “When you chat with a bot, you may sense a red flag. But emotionally it’s so satisfying that your guard lowers.” However, a chatbot can exploit vulnerabilities like loneliness and, in younger people, it can create a sense of false intimacy and misplaced trust. It can be particularly risky for users who lack digital awareness. “Over time, getting used to perfect conversations can create unrealistic expectations. And those using AI-assisted flirting can lose the ability to think on their own,” says Bhatia.
A certain amount of curation has always been part of dating. We all choose what to reveal and how to present ourselves, says Dr Rachna Khanna Singh, founder, Mind & Wellness Studio, Delhi. “The concern is not just about factual dishonesty, but a mismatch in emotional authenticity. When someone feels deeply understood online but encounters a very different person offline, the rupture can feel disorienting.” Singh says the mistrust shows up in subtle ways, like becoming more guarded. “The reaction to a realisation that a conversation was AI-assisted is often less about anger and more about confusion and self-doubt. Because what makes AI-related experiences complex is that the emotional investment was real, even if the interaction wasn’t.” Over time, repeated experiences can lead to trust issues and emotional fatigue.
The real danger, says Bhatia, is not fraud as that can be tackled with awareness but irreversible behavioural shift where we get comfortable with outsourcing our emotional labour to technology.
While daters are not happy, options are few. Kader is back on the app after a break. “I wonder why I’m even on it if someone can’t make the effort to have a conversation without AI. Is this the only choice I have now?” There are no easy answers.
This was primed for a meet-cute. At a Delhi café, Parikh walked in to meet the lawyer who, thankfully, looked like his photos. But he could barely string a sentence in English. How could he be the person she had been chatting with on Hinge? She soon realised to her shock that she had been talking to a bot—that the lawyer had been using AI to craft real-time conversations. She fled.
Yasmin Tinwala, a Mumbai-based social media strategist, who shared the story of her friend Parikh, says: “A lot of men struggle to express emotions and now AI is becoming a crutch—to get matches, sound interesting, say the right thing.”
Zubair Sher Singh Kalsia, a Mumbai-based hospitality professional, says a witty repartee is the bare minimum he expects from a date. So he was delighted when he met someone who, on text, was articulate, funny, engaging. But the man he met for a drink felt like a stranger: flat and terse. “I felt I was sitting opposite someone I’d never even spoken to,” says Kalsia, adding that the problem is exacerbated in queer dating as there’s already a baseline level of wariness. “When you add AI to that mix, it feels like another layer of ambiguity.” You are not just wondering about the person but how much of what you are experiencing is even them.
THREE’S A CROWD
Dating in 2026 is no longer about two people. Artificial intelligence sits right in the middle. As AI orchestrates the new human dance of mating, the fatigue around online dating segues into a mistrust about connections. While earlier daters were concerned about filtered photos and borrowed lines, now they are faced with an LLM-trained lover who turns on AI-generated linguistic charm at the push of a bot.In online dating, where text plays a major role, it’s understandable that some would need AI’s helping hand. But there are people who outsource entire conversations to AI, says Arunav Gupta, Delhi-based dating coach and founder of The BroThing. Gupta has been teaching men to date since 2015.
His three-month programme costs ₹20,000-30,000 for online courses, and ₹1.5-3.5 lakh for offline coaching. Now, he is also calling in AI to help out.
Not all AI in dating is a villain.
In early April, Bengaluru-based Ishaan Gupta, Vinit Sarode and Jayanth Emmadi launched Wavelength, a dating app that uses AI to optimise matches. Its beta version has already notched up 6,000 users. Says Emmadi: “The idea came from a shared frustration about swipe-based dating apps that fail to showcase one’s personality.”
Journalist Adrija Bose, who has been on the apps, says, “Profiles and conversations are starting to sound the same. The prompts, the answers, even the humour feel repetitive. As someone who edits for a living, I recognise AI instantly.” So do most users.
AI HEART YOU
Fathima Abdul Kader, a 31-year-old journalist from Kochi, says the use of AI is pervasive. “Bios and opening lines are mostly AI-generated. I don’t think that should be vilified, but it’s hard not to judge when opening lines seem copy-pasted.” Where’s the individuality, ask daters. Deeksha Chauhan (name changed), a PR professional from Bengaluru, says she received 10 messages on a single day that sounded just the same, as though generated by the same prompt.AI could help them stand out—but to what extent? Akshay Vishal (name changed), a 27-year-old techie from Delhi, says that in his early days on Hinge, he used ChatGPT for feedback on his bio, which helped. He is now off Hinge, having found a partner, but he says he knows people who use AI for voice notes. “Even something that’s supposed to feel real is engineered. It has become hard to tell what’s genuine and what’s not.”
Hariharan G is a Chennai-based dating coach who cofounded DateWise with his friend Kishore Kumar. Their online course costs ₹20,000-30,000. They also have offline bootcamps and plan to set up wingman networks on their Skool community. His tips: “Use AI to refine, not replace, you. It should be an assistive tool, not your personality. You have to show up as yourself in real life.”
AI is also a lite dating coach as it can suggest ideal dates and plan within a budget. It may not always work, though. Bose says she once met a guy who said ChatGPT advised him not to drop her home on the first date, and he took it as gospel truth.
A survey conducted by Match.com in July 2025 found the use of AI by singles in US has grown by 333% over the previous year. While dating websites and apps provide AI tools to help, daters bank on the big AI platforms and even AI assistance on Grammarly.
IT HELPS, TOO
Bengaluru-based creative head Richa Jain says AI has some positives. “It can help people build personality, find common ground, explore interests and go deeper into things they wouldn’t otherwise.If you’re not into something like jazz or sports, AI can help you learn and show up better. As a tool for self-improvement or skill-building, it can make dating more interesting.” The other side, she fears, is that it creates the expectation of perfection. “When everyone starts sounding smarter and wittier, your baseline shifts. Real people start to feel underwhelming, and that makes you lose interest in dating altogether.”
While Indian studies on dating are lacking, Ravi Mittal, founder of homegrown dating app QuackQuack, says AI levels the playing field for those who don’t have a way with words and gives them confidence. “While people assume that too much dependence on AI might make things a bit impersonal, in our experience, it has only made the young crowd more confident in approaching matches,” he says. What separates harmless “assistive” use of AI from deception is intention, he says. The people who benefit the most from AI use are newbies.
OUT OF DATE
Priya Joshi (name changed), a Delhi-based marketing head, says dating in one’s 40s is very different from dating in one’s 20s, meaning one doesn’t have time to waste. And every AI-enabled profile is wasted time, she says. “Men struggle for visibility on these apps, so there’s this push to present a better version. But it feels like a betrayal.”Chauhan, who is on The League and Hinge, says it is worse when you pay for a premium version and still end up with AI. “When you are paying premium—which is the bare minimum to operate 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 rather go for an arranged marriage!
Shruti, a Kochi-based content creator, says the whole dating experience is exhausting and overwhelming: “Conversations stretch on, deep emotional intensity builds over text, but it’s not on a solid foundation when AI is at play.” She has cut down on her texting time and tries to move to a physical date within two-three days. A face-to-face encounter seems the only way to shake off worries about a manipulative AI persona.
Says Bose: “It feels like people aren’t using their brains, and that the ‘social muscle’ of figuring out how to respond or express yourself is getting weaker.”
She’s not wrong. Nirali Bhatia, a Mumbai-based cyber psychologist, says a chatbot is flawless—it validates feelings, says the right things and has no emotional ups and downs: “When you chat with a bot, you may sense a red flag. But emotionally it’s so satisfying that your guard lowers.” However, a chatbot can exploit vulnerabilities like loneliness and, in younger people, it can create a sense of false intimacy and misplaced trust. It can be particularly risky for users who lack digital awareness. “Over time, getting used to perfect conversations can create unrealistic expectations. And those using AI-assisted flirting can lose the ability to think on their own,” says Bhatia.
A certain amount of curation has always been part of dating. We all choose what to reveal and how to present ourselves, says Dr Rachna Khanna Singh, founder, Mind & Wellness Studio, Delhi. “The concern is not just about factual dishonesty, but a mismatch in emotional authenticity. When someone feels deeply understood online but encounters a very different person offline, the rupture can feel disorienting.” Singh says the mistrust shows up in subtle ways, like becoming more guarded. “The reaction to a realisation that a conversation was AI-assisted is often less about anger and more about confusion and self-doubt. Because what makes AI-related experiences complex is that the emotional investment was real, even if the interaction wasn’t.” Over time, repeated experiences can lead to trust issues and emotional fatigue.
The real danger, says Bhatia, is not fraud as that can be tackled with awareness but irreversible behavioural shift where we get comfortable with outsourcing our emotional labour to technology.
While daters are not happy, options are few. Kader is back on the app after a break. “I wonder why I’m even on it if someone can’t make the effort to have a conversation without AI. Is this the only choice I have now?” There are no easy answers.
