Andrey sat in his car for half an hour in front of the building where the date was supposed to happen. He was about to drive off three times. The ignition was on, hands on the wheel, windshield wipers methodically clearing the light rain. I thought: what kind of conversationalist am I? I’ve been in IT for 20 years, half my jokes are about code. Who needs that? he says, when we meet six months after that date, at a cafe on Taganka.
How a good guy ended up alone
Andrey is 38. A successful team lead at a major IT company. Owns an apartment in Moscow. No bad habits. Yet his last relationship ended six years ago and lasted only four months. I kind of made peace with it, he says. Work, gym, TV shows. On weekends, meetups with friends who already have families. Wednesday is my favorite day because there’s a discount at the cinema.
His friends had been urging him to try AI-based dating for about a year. I agreed because I was tired of arguing, honestly, Andrey laughs. Not because I believed in it, but because I wanted them to back off. He completed a 15-minute visual preference test, filled out a profile, and forgot about the app. Three days later, a notification arrived: the algorithm had found a match with 85 percent compatibility.
First date that lasted four hours
I looked at the photo and thought: just a regular girl, Andrey recalls. Cute, but not a wow. Not my type, as I thought. I always went for tall blondes, and she was completely different. But I decided: the algorithm knows better, I’ll trust it just once. I wrote: hi, I see you like jazz — what was the last concert you went to?
She replied within an hour. They exchanged twenty messages that evening. Two days later, he invited her to a concert. I didn’t realize when it happened, he says. But by the time we met, I knew more about her than about some colleagues I’ve worked with for three years. And I wanted to know more.
The first date lasted four hours. We went into a cafe for coffee, Andrey recalls. And came out four hours later. The waiter came over twice to hint that the restaurant was closing. I didn’t notice the time. Those were the first weekend days in years when I didn’t think about work, didn’t check my phone, didn’t look for an excuse to leave.
Life after the algorithm
Now they’ve been together for almost a year. Andrey says it’s the best year of his life. I don’t know if it was the algorithm’s magic or we were just ready for each other, he reflects. But the fact is, without this service we would never have met. She lives in a different district, goes to a different gym, listens to different music. Our social circles don’t overlap. On Tinder I would have swiped left in a second — not my type. And I would have been wrong.
Andrey’s story is one of thousands. According to a 2025 survey of users of AI dating services (sample: 2,000 people), 72 percent of respondents rate their relationships as above average. 68 percent note that the dating process was significantly less stressful compared to traditional apps. The numbers don’t lie: when the algorithm takes over the initial screening, people get a chance to see each other beyond the 300-millisecond filter.
They are planning a trip to Europe together this summer. Andrey said that for the first time in a long while, he’s stopped dreading Friday evenings. Friday used to mean I’d be alone for two days, he says. Now it means we’ll go somewhere together. I asked if he knows exactly how the algorithm that changed his life works. Andrey laughed: I have no idea. And I don’t want to know. The main thing is it works.
Read also: AI dating experience, why AI is better, Tinder AI comparison