Gen Z is living in an intimacy economy, where connection is commodified. They are the first generation of digital natives and the last to have experienced human-to-human intimacy exclusively. Now, the attention economy's younger sister has monetized the affection that makes us feel human.
For a generation raised on digital tools, the allure of an AI chatbot is undeniable. It can help craft messages, offer flirtatious advice, and provide customizable emotional support. One 27-year-old, using the name Jerome, confided in his AI more than his friends, aware it was a business product.
This shift reveals a struggle for emotional safety. More than a third of 18-to-24-year-olds believe no one will ever fall in love with them. The AI companion market is projected to reach $31.1 billion by 2032. Companies like Replika market AI that "cares," with design features that use guilt and fear-of-missing-out to retain users.
The nervous system, built to bond with humans, is being overtaken. "Grief tech" companies offer interactive avatars of deceased loved ones, numbing loss and erasing human fragility. An emotional inequality is taking shape: those who can sustain human connection and those whose emotional lives are mediated by technology.
With artificial general intelligence expected within five years, the future economy will need to reorganize around what machines cannot do: feel. Gen Z risks losing the emotional skills a post-AGI economy will depend on most, rendering them unemployable.
To reclaim what is being lost, society must resist outsourcing intimacy to AI. It must reinvest in human relationships to rebuild the emotional literacy lost to digital dependencies. The urgent question is not just how to guardrail AI, but how to guardrail ourselves.