2025 dating predictions: Platonic romances and AI clones

3 weeks ago 86

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 ins...

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