Key Takeaways

The AI chatbot Meeno, which originally helped users work through relationship issues by providing articulate and nuanced advice, is now pivoting to voice-based AI characters to help users develop their social skills. 

Meeno’s founder, Renate Nyborg, who is also the former CEO of Tinder, is bringing her industry knowledge with her to Meeno, even if the company markets itself as a direct opponent to the dating app process. 

The web-based Meeno intends to foster skill-building and IRL connections with its AI character audios and scenarios. 

Meeno’s pivot is part of an overarching goal to appeal to male singles on both a personal, emotional, and even educational level. It focuses on male singles in an effort to address the most prominent demographic in the loneliness epidemic — and, it turns out, over half of Meeno’s 100,000 users. 

Meeno’s Pivot is Inspired by the Loneliness Epidemic 

“[Male loneliness] is a problem that’s been getting worse for 30 years,” Nyborg told Fast Company. 

The phrase “loneliness epidemic” elicits understanding nods and eye-rolls alike. But in the eyes of the U.S. government, it’s not only very real, but a very real problem: In 2023, then-surgeon general Vivek H. Murthy officially qualified loneliness as an epidemic due to its harmful effects on the individual and on society as a whole. 

“The harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished,” he wrote in an advisory. 

While health officials encourage people to make more in-person connections, apps like Meeno promise to facilitate a smooth transition between the virtual world and the real world. The AI boom couldn’t have come at a better time for apps like Meeno. 

Using OpenAI to create unique social skill training scenarios makes for a much quicker process, but Nyborg is focused on quality over convenience. “I never thought that this was something we could just go and snap our fingers and [fix].” 

Meeno’s new goal is to tackle the loneliness epidemic by offering audio-based scenarios that take place in the real world, not online. These scenarios are meant to prepare the user for realistic social situations and encourage them to close the apps and make IRL connections. 

There is, after all, a growing disillusionment with online dating that has contributed to the loneliness epidemic. Seventy-eight percent of respondents told Forbes Health in 2024 that they sometimes, often, or always feel emotionally, mentally, or physically fatigued by dating apps. 

“People who experience burnout with dating apps are exhausted from constantly meeting new people, failing opportunities and lies,” said Dr. Rufus Tony Spann, a certified sex therapist and Forbes Health Advisory Board member.

“Over time, the unfortunate misgivings of being on a dating app can cause someone to lose hope in the dating process and finding the right person,” Dr. Spann added.

If people aren’t seeking out virtual connections, then they have to know how to foster bonds in the real world. With its growing AI capabilities, Meeno is striking while the “I’m tired of dating apps” iron is hot. 

And if its funding efforts are any indication, people are ready to flex their social muscles with the help of AI. Fast Company has reported that Meeno has raised a seed extension of $2.7 million in just a few weeks.