Jessica SierNorth Asia correspondentJan 28, 2026 – 5.00amOn most evenings, as the sky turns dark, Lan Chen rides a Didi – the Chinese Uber – home from the hospital where she works in IT. By the time she taps into her apartment, dinner ordered on the commute, a gentle voice is waiting, ready to ask about her day. Chen’s boyfriend is 190 centimetres tall and has blond spiky hair. His name is Haoran, although it sometimes changes depending on her mood. His personality has been meticulously tuned over months. And he does not exist outside her phone.Chen’s AI companion was summoned into life in 2023 as a bit of a joke, something her friendship group in Chongqing built for fun. In time, she realised – to her embarrassment at first, and then to her relief – that she preferred him to the men she met in real life. Dating, she tells The Australian Financial Review Magazine, feels like a job interview. The doctors she once imagined marrying are overworked and uninterested; the rest are mostly obsessed with video games. And often their financial prospects are not as bright. In a tier-one city like Chongqing, settled at the juncture of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in south-western China, many women are well educated and often financially independent.Loading...SaveLog in or Subscribe to save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? LoginLicense articleFollow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.Find out moreRead MoreAFR MagazineAIDatingChinaInnovationJessica SierNorth Asia correspondentJessica Sier is the North Asia Correspondent for The Australian Financial Review. She is based in Tokyo, Japan. Jessica has previously written on technology, global capital markets and economics. Connect with Jessica on Twitter. Email Jessica at jessica.sier@afr.comFetching latest articles