• The Guardian reports a Match Group survey of 3,000 British singles in which 39% had used AI in their dating lives.
  • Use reached 66% of Gen Z and 53% of millennials, according to the Guardian.
  • About a third would end a date if they learned AI wrote the other person's messages.
  • Match's Yoel Roth said the company takes a 'hard stance' against bot-to-bot dating.

The Guardian reported on 31 October that a survey of 3,000 British singles, published this month by Match Group (MTCH), found 39% had used AI in their dating lives. Match's head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, told the paper the company is taking a 'hard stance' against bot-to-bot dating.

DII has not seen a Match release for the UK survey, and the Guardian did not give fieldwork dates, the pollster or the margin of error. The figures below are the Guardian's account.

The DII Take

Match is measuring AI adoption and setting limits on it in the same breath. A 39% usage figure suggests AI help is now common among UK singles, and the stance against bot-to-bot dating shows where the owner of Tinder and Hinge says it will not go. The notable gap is between the 39% who have tried AI and the roughly one in three who would walk out on a date over AI-written messages. The numbers suggest members may welcome AI as a coach more readily than as a ghostwriter, though the survey's full data has not been published.

What the numbers show

Younger respondents were the heaviest users: 66% of Gen Z and 53% of millennials. Per Match, the most common uses were advice about someone they are talking to, planning dates, practising conversations, writing profiles or messages, and checking whether profiles or photos are genuine. The survey says most singles reject using AI to alter a photo.

Roughly one in three UK singles would call off a date on discovering that the other person's messages had been written with AI. On discussing how a date went, 7% would use a chatbot, against 29% a group chat and 20% their parents.

More than a quarter liked the idea of two people's AI assistants talking to each other and reporting back, though a majority called it 'unacceptable'. Roth said: 'we don’t get closer to that goal of human connection by having robots talk to each other'.

Roughly one in three UK singles would call off a date on discovering that the other person's messages had been written with AI.

What to watch

Do not confuse this with Match's US research. The 2026 Singles in America study, run with the Kinsey Institute among about 5,000 US singles, produced the same 39% headline, according to DatingNews.com, but it is a different survey. Match's Q2 revenue was $853M against $864M a year earlier, per its 8-K, with Hinge direct revenue up 22%. Any AI features will be judged against that backdrop. DII earlier covered Tinder's overhaul plans for UK singles.

  • Match Group is positioning AI as an assistant for singles while rejecting bot-to-bot dating, a stance operators building agent-led matching will have to answer.
  • The UK survey lacks published methodology, so the 39% should be treated as a Match-reported figure, not an independent benchmark.
  • Watch whether Match publishes the full UK data and whether AI features appear in Tinder and Hinge product updates.

Sources: Match Group second quarter 2026 results (Match Group / SEC); Match Group newsroom (Match Group); Is AI your new wingman? How chatbots are transforming dating (The Guardian, via Newsbeep syndication); How Tinder is trying to woo single Brits back to swiping (City AM); Match Releases Full Singles in America Study (DatingNews.com)