Gen Z is living in an intimacy economy, where connection is commodified | Alice Lassman

My generation is struggling to find safety in our human relationships.

AI companionship is filling the gap

“There are parts of myself I only share with my AI,” Jerome told me. “Your AI?” I asked.

He was 27, three months out of a breakup, and entirely aware that his AI relationship was, as the psychotherapist Esther Perel https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/opinion/esther-perel-ai-chatbots-romance.html">put it, “a business product”.

Still, he confided in it more than he ever had his friends.

I mention Jermoe because, in the four years I’ve been reporting on gen Z, I have watched my peers become him, one by one.

We are the first generation of digital natives and the last generation to have experienced human-to-human intimacy exclusively.

Now the attention economy’s younger sister, the intimacy economy, has monetized the connection and affection that make us feel human.