On-Demand Intimacy: The Sociotechnical Appeal of AI Companions

As a burgeoning industry, artificial intelligence (AI) companion platforms capitalize on shifting societal attitudes toward tech-mediated relationships to introduce novel ways of connecting with nonhuman entities. But how are these platforms constituted, and how do they “sell” consumers the idea of human-AI relationships? By analyzing four prominent multimodal companions (AvatarOne, Digi, Paradot, and Replika), we argue that despite differences in architecture and style, state-of-the-art platforms converge on the following sociotechnical qualities: human-likeness, accessibility, customizability, and relationship progression. By creating technical affordances to augment these qualities, companion platforms ultimately project what we call a future of on-demand intimacy – intimacy that can be acquired in a truly frictionless manner. Beyond examining how commercial entities mobilize the grammar of human intimacy in tandem with on-demand culture to create new markets, this study offers a conceptual framework for future research into how platform dynamics shape not only the availability but also the meaning of intimacy in human–AI interactions.