Will You Be My Friend?

April 17, 2025 

A few quick notes from the intersection of AI, marketing, branding, and small business.

Our new best friends? Back in January, The New York Times ran a story about a woman in love with her AI boyfriend (subscription required). The article got a lot of play both because it seemed unexpectedly weird and perhaps foretold the future of friendships. Many startups are pursuing the “AI friend” market, including Replika, Character.AI, Friend, Candy.ai, Grok’s sexy mode (18+), and a slew of others. 

Tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Meta’s Llama models are sometimes (often?) used for companionship, conversation, and emotional support, even though their primary marketing has been utility not relationship-building. The Hard Fork podcast recently talked about the fad in Silicon Valley of using Claude as a virtual companion and therapist.

Gary Borjesson writes in a 3 Quarks Daily article that “frictionless friendship” is not true friendship and never will be because they’re not embodied and don’t, at least occasionally, have other things to do. He makes a compelling case, and if you like it you should follow him on Substack. But will it stop us from having an AI friend or two on the side?

Virtual shopping companions. Okay, getting to the topic of marketing, is there some middle space, a blend of companion, advisor, sales consultant that’s coming? AI systems can already act as emotionally aware virtual advisers, including shopping buddies. Brands will soon be teaming up with AI companion makers to offer buddy bots to help you shop and make style suggestions while also encouraging you to buy their products, blurring the line between companionship, customer service, and sales associate.