New Survey Finds Regular AI Use Is a Major Relationship Red Flag for Young Daters

If you’re single and searching for romance, there’s a new reason to think twice about leaning heavily on tools like ChatGPT: most modern daters find frequent AI use deeply unappealing.

A recent survey of 3,500 Gen Z and Millennial daters across the U.S., conducted by dating app Hily, confirms that relying on AI for everyday tasks is far from an attractive flex. In fact, it is one of the biggest turnoffs for anyone pursuing romance or a potential long-term partnership.

Younger daters are especially quick to label AI overreliance as a major red flag. While 56% of Millennial respondents said they would not date someone who uses AI regularly, that share jumps to 64% among Gen Z daters. More than half of Gen Z survey participants even said using AI to get career advice or make spending decisions would be an immediate dealbreaker, compared to 46% and 44% of Millennials for those two categories, respectively.

Daters’ aversion to AI use only grows stronger when the technology is applied to more personal, intimate matters. Three-quarters of Gen Z respondents said using AI to “analyze a relationship conflict” is a hard no-go, compared to 70% of Millennials. Sixty-nine percent of Gen Zers added they would refuse to date someone who uses AI in place of a therapist, versus 60% of Millennials who share that view. Turning to AI to judge whether a part of your sex life is healthy is also a major turnoff, with 62% of Gen Z and 53% of Millennials calling that habit a dealbreaker.

Even for committed, long-term relationships, the negative reaction to AI reliance lingers: 65% of Gen Z respondents said they would not marry a partner who used AI to help write their wedding vows, compared to 51% of Millennials.

These results may seem extreme at first glance, given how widespread regular AI use has become in recent years. But experts note it is not surprising that daters are wary of people who lean too heavily on the technology.

“Being dependent on AI is a turnoff because it feels like you’re interacting with a filtered, hyper-optimized version of your date, not who they really are,” Julie Nguyen, a certified dating coach at Hily, told Fast Company. “There’s something that can feel strange about not knowing if you’re interacting with their full authenticity and vulnerability,” she added.