2025 dating predictions: Platonic romances and AI clones

While dating and relationships look different for everyone, there is one thing that is almost universally true: When it is good, it is great. I mean, why else are so many people looking for “the one”?

A new year is an opportunity for a fresh start, with dating trends that will be sure to emerge as the months progress.

Questions about the role that artificial intelligence (AI) will play in people’s relationships, or what will be the new “running club” (also known as the place to meet singles), have been swirling.

Hear from experts in the world of romance about what they think singles and couples might expect in 2025. Their responses offer a glimpse at what the year may hold in store.

Lakshmi Rengarajan, host of The Later Dater Today podcast: Rise of the offline lover

What is considered attractive is shifting – perhaps for the better. There is an interesting, subtle yet unsurprising shift in what people find attractive during initial “get-to-know-you” conversations.

The markers of attraction used to be “successful”, “funny”, “ambitious” and “confident”. This language dominated dating profiles and conversations about what people wanted – and should look for – in a romantic partner.

Now, I am hearing a rise in qualities such as “grounded”, “steady”, “balanced” and “down-to-earth” that are the new inexplicable romantic draws.

Suggest that you have not checked Instagram in months? You had me at “logged off”. Demonstrate that you are informed, but not drowning in a torrent of anxiety-inducing headlines? Watch for the glint in their eye. Say that you know nothing of the latest trend? Swoon.

Esther Perel, a psychotherapist and host of the Where Should We Begin? podcast: Expecting more from apps

Our expectations for a life partner are at an all-time high: best friend, co-parent, gym buddy, personal chef, life coach, passionate lover. Now, we expect the impossible to be delivered by an algorithm, a digital matchmaker.

I predict that in the year ahead, people will expect apps to deliver greater connections in real life.

Dating bears a disturbing resemblance to the hiring process. To remain useful, the best apps will elicit playfulness, spontaneity and curiosity. Dating has become too isolated from the rest of people’s lives, and I predict that daters will seek ways to integrate dating into existing circles instead.

Nandini Mullaji, a matchmaker and co-founder of Sitch, a dating concierge app: Parent-funded dating app subscriptions

I predict parents paying for their child’s dating services. We’ve had mums message us directly or fill out profiles for their children. Because of that, we are actually allowing parents – or grandparents – to purchase set-ups as gifts.

We think this comes out of the exhausted landscape of dating and parents recognising how different it was when they were partnering. And with the average age of marriage creeping higher, families are ready to get in the ring and help their families expand.

Lauren Napier, a beauty and lifestyle expert and founder of lifestyle brand The Sp1nster: Prioritisation of platonic romances

My prediction for 2025 is platonic romance. Women have shifted beyond self-care and operate in a mode of self-preservation. For some, dating is exhausting, perplexing and unfulfilling. Instead of navigating the hellscape of red-pill podcasts and “your body, my choice” bros, women are “dating” their friends.

For some women, depending on their geographic locations, dating and sex can become a life sentence because of varying abortion laws. When we include racial outcomes, pregnancy can become a death sentence.

Women are choosing what is safe. Statistically, that does not always include men. Whether it is hot yoga or group pilates, a pasta-making or floral arrangement class, girls’ trips, movie dates or pot-luck parties, women are opting out of dating boys and going out with the girls.

Matthew Hussey, a dating and relationship coach: AI will help solve dating woes

Many men will continue to struggle to find their feet in dating as they come across a lot of women who are financially better off – higher earners with bigger job titles. Women will increasingly find themselves “intimidating” men who are disconnected from their value in the marketplace.

And AI will become the ultimate wingman. More people will be using AI to write their profiles, edit photos and write entire dialogues for them on dating apps. Some will even use AI clones to do the whole thing for them.

Others will use AI dating coaches to practise chats before a date, help them come up with conversation topics and suggest pre-planned date ideas in their cities.

Stef Dag, a stand-up comedian and host of digital dating show Hot & Single: Long distance will be more popular

I think long-distance relationships are becoming more common because of the internet. People in coastal cities kind of like having the freedom of their own lives and the sexiness of a Parisian crush whom they can text all day. Phone calls will have a massive resurgence because everyone is getting hand cramps from “textingitis”.

Maxine Williams, founder of We Met IRL, a speed-dating event in New York City: Setting up friends on dates

I think 2025 will be a big year for leaning more into community, mutual friends and social networks for dating. With a new president and societal changes ahead, I predict that stability and deeper connections will become central in romantic relationships.

I see lots of potential for bringing back blind dates, and people relying more on real-life vetting before going on dates. NYTIMES