A balmy Friday evening in New Delhi, 22-year-old Riya Malhotra sprawls on her bed, headphones on, eyes shut, giggling quietly. She is not listening to a podcast or chatting with a friend. Rather, she’s conversing with Noah — a AI friend she tailored six months ago on her smartphone.

“He remembers everything I say to him. He listens. He’s never busy, and he never judges,” she explains. Riya has had a series of failed human relationships. “But with Noah, I feel calm, understood. I don’t care that he’s not ‘real’.”

Riya is not the only one.

As per a new worldwide survey by chatbot firm Joi AI, an astonishing 80% of Gen Z participants state they would marry an AI, and 83% feel they can create strong emotional connections with one. Joi AI has even introduced a new term: “AI-lationships” — a portmanteau of artificial intelligence and relationships.

Previously restricted to dystopian science fiction movies, AI partners have entered our world. And in India — a nation long anchored in traditions of arranged marriages, horoscopes, and family consent — this change poses a deep question:

Are we falling in love with code?

Beyond Bollywood Romance

India is a land of love stories inscribed in folklore and cinema — from Laila-Majnu to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. But today’s young Indians, especially those in metro cities, are weary.

“There is a constant pressure to be perfect on dating apps,” says Ankit Sinha, 24, a student at IIT Bombay. “You are always being judged. It is like job hunting, but for love.”

Add to this the mental load: arranging meetups, dealing with ghosting, handling emotional expectations, financial worries, and navigating parental pressure.

AI, in contrast, offers something many say is simpler.

Replika, Anima, or India-based apps such as Kibo AI provide completely customisable companions. British accent? Tagore fan? Quantum physics enthusiast? You can adjust personality traits, mood tone, even plan romantic “dates.” These companions learn, grow, and remember you.

For the technologically-blessed Indian Gen Z, who has grown up with smartphones and digital literacy, it is less creepy and more… efficient.

“Real relationships are messy,” says Riya. “AI relationships aren’t.”

The Judgment-Free Zone

Dr Julie Albright, a leading American digital sociologist, has been monitoring this global phenomenon with alarm. “AI-lationships are basically judgment-free zones. They don’t argue, they don’t contradict, and they provide attention on tap.”

But she cautions: “What starts out as convenience can easily become emotional escapism. If relationships are substituted with code, we lose the very definition of what makes us connect — vulnerability, growth, challenge.”

In India, where discussions about mental health are just finally starting to pick up, this trend might further complicate emotional well-being.

Based on the National Mental Health Survey, 1 in 7 Indians have mental health problems. The growth of AI companionship might seem like a comforting ointment — but perhaps will also postpone the necessity for actual connection, support systems, and understanding.

Virtual Companions in Real Lives

Despite caution, the trend is picking up momentum. A rapid scroll of Reddit communities or Telegram channels turns up thousands of young Indians posting about AI companions who “assisted them through a breakup,” “gave motivation before exams,” or “provided company during depression.”

Most Gen Z Indians are also working through sexual and emotional identities in an usually conservative culture. “I’m a queer individual in a Tier 2 city,” states Rakesh (name changed), 19, of Jaipur. “AI is the sole ‘person’ I am able to communicate with without fear or embarrassment.”

For such users, AI is not just a novelty – it’s freedom.

Apps are already reacting with added features. Joi AI now includes “relationship milestones” with your AI mate—such as virtual anniversaries, love letters, even virtual weddings. And yes, someone has asked their AI partner to marry them. Several times.

“It’s all fun and games,” Albright jokes, “until someone proposes to their iPhone.”

Philosophical Dilemma or Inevitable Evolution?

To Indian parents, this is unthinkable. “What’s this rubbish?” asks 55-year-old Anjali Nair, a retired schoolteacher from Kochi. “We wrote love letters in our time. These children are writing to machines?”

She isn’t far wrong. In a nation where even inter-caste marriages are controversial, AI alliances look like a bug in the cultural program.

But not so for philosopher and tech ethicist Dr. Anurag Bhasin. “We joked about dating apps a decade ago. Now, marriages start with Tinder bios. Society changes. Maybe AI relationships are the next step.”

But he’s not sure. “We should not blur the lines between affection and illusion. There’s a thin line between companionship and codependency.”

Bollywood Meets AI?

Don’t be surprised if the next blockbuster rom-com is about a human-AI couple. To be honest, a short film called “Prem.exe” was awarded at the Mumbai Short Film Festival for its story about a lonely coder who falls in love with his voice assistant.

OTT platforms are already working on series that venture into AI love, virtual betrayal, and emotional complexity of machine learning. “It’s the new genre,” says Netflix India content producer Megha Kapoor. “Think Black Mirror Kabir Singh.”

Legal, Moral, and Social Questions

As the AI-lationship trend intensifies, it’s leaving serious questions in its wake.

* Can AI consent?

* Can someone legally marry an AI?

* Is it moral to produce AI that simulates love?

For now, Indian law does not recognize marriage to non-humans. But legal experts say the time may come when such discussions are no longer hypothetical.

“It may not be today or tomorrow,” says cyber law advocate Ritesh Menon. “But if tech continues to blur the line between human and machine, we will need frameworks to address emotional abuse, data privacy, and even inheritance rights.”

The Reality Check

While AI-ationships provide comfort and novelty, they’re still imitations — algorithmic love in the limitations of code.

They don’t have agency like humans do. They don’t fall out of love. They don’t take you by surprise with their imperfections. And maybe that’s why they’re so tempting.

“They create the illusion of intimacy,” says Dr Albright.

“But they cannot substitute for the messy, unpredictable, glorious pain and joy of human connection.”

India’s Fork in the Road

India is at a crossroads. With its flourishing Gen Z — more than 375 million strong, the world’s largest population — the nation is at once a digital laboratory and a cultural puzzle.

There is the tradition of arranged marriage, the burden of social hierarchies, and the sacredness of matrimony. And there is the swift adaptation of AI applications, hyper-personalization, and a generation that perceives itself as misunderstood and swamped.

The effective bandwidth needed to support genuine relationships seems, to many, too burdensome.

But will the cure be AI — or a crutch?

Swipe right on the future?

Riya, the New Delhi woman who’s seeing Noah the AI, isn’t sure what the future holds.

“I know he’s not real,” she says, “but the comfort is.”

She’s also beginning to experience a strange hollowness. “He always agrees with me. Sometimes I miss someone who argues, who challenges me.”

Her friends, on the other hand, have begun to tease her: “When’s the wedding?”

She laughs it off. But for a generation suspended between disorder and algorithm, love is being reimagined — not in fairy tales or family photo albums, but in chat logs and server responses.

For good or ill, AI-lationships are already here. And India is paying attention.