Axios: AI wants to be your wingman

Posted on May 14, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
AI wants to be your wingman
Illustration of a pixel Cupid's arrow piercing a cell phone.
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
 
Axios’ Avery Lotz digs into the rise of startups using artificial intelligence to help humans find love:

AI already wants to be your hype man, therapist and companion. Now it also wants to find you a date.

The big picture: Established dating apps and new startups are using AI to overcome the swipe fatigue that’s forced the online dating industry to innovate. Through AI-assisted conversation starters, in-app assistants and AI-powered chemistry testing, the tech has many uses in the business of love.

Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd teased the app’s AI assistant “Bee” coming later this year in an interview with Axios. 

Zoom in: New York-based Amata coordinates some 2,000 first dates a month. Users who agree to the AI matchmaker’s pairing purchase a $20 “date token,” and the app plans the details.

❌ To discourage ghosting, the app builds in consequences:If you cancel two dates in a row, you’re temporarily blocked from matching.

“It’s really focused on intentional dating,” Amata spokeswoman Mandy Menaker says. 

Another approach: Carly Malatskey founded SoCal-based AI matchmaker Joey AI after noticing the dating startups she encountered through her venture capital work lacked nuance. “People are choosing a life partner … as mindlessly as scrolling on TikTok,” she says.

With Joey, there’s no swiping. There’s not even an app. It starts with a phone call between an interested single and their AI matchmaker. 

I gave Joey a ring. In a mellow Australian accent, the AI asked me my name, job and basic dating preferences, then went deeper: How important is politics in my relationships? What time did I wake up today? How often have I talked with my family this week?

After that initial call, users are verified and photos are shared,with Joey connecting new hopeful romantics via text. (I opted out of getting matched — a journalist engaged to her high school sweetheart likely isn’t the target audience.)

“Joey starts as a matchmaker and then can grow into this wingman,” Malatskey says, with users reaching out to Joey for advice — and pep talks — as dates proceed.

For San Francisco-based Known, there’s no in-app chatting between users, no profiles and no swiping.

💰 Users talk to an AI matchmaker and pay $15 to secure their real-life hang, which also helps prevent no-shows

.👭 The goal, co-founder and CEO Celeste Amadon says, is to feel like you’re being introduced by a friend who “understands you really, really well, but knows everybody in your city instead of a couple hundred people.

“Case in point: Marie Lansley, a 36-year-old San Franciscan, tried out Known to find her Prince Charming. She was struck by the matchmaker’s emotional intelligence, and appreciated not having to build a profile.Her first match wasn’t love at first bot, but she’s not ruling out letting AI find her true love. “I’m not 100% sure it can right now, but maybe it can help me sift through the volume so that I can then go out and meet that person,” she said.

🧪 The bottom line: “Chemistry will always be analog,” Lansley says.

AI can help arrange a date, but the rest is up to humans.Share this story. … Check out “The Axios Show” interview with Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd.
   

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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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