AI Companion Research, Testing and Analysis
Research, product testing, industry analysis and expert commentary from someone who actually uses the products.
I'm Ranji Mercado, founder of AI Girlfriend Coach. I research the AI companion industry through original surveys, industry datasets and hands-on product testing. I work with companies, publications, researchers and teams that need a deeper understanding of AI companions, the people using them, and the products shaping the category.
Product testing, competitor research, market analysis.
Research, data analysis, subject-matter expertise, research-backed writing.
Commentary, interviews, original data and firsthand product observations. Media inquiries are welcome and do not require a commercial engagement.
What I Can Help With
Independent Product Testing
See what your AI companion actually feels like to use.
I test AI companion products the way a real user meets them: onboarding, the free tier, the paywall, then the paid features and long-running conversations. Testing can cover conversation quality, memory, character consistency, image generation, pricing and credits, or whichever areas matter to your product.
Research and Market Analysis
Understand the category beyond individual products.
I can research specific questions about the AI companion market, its competitors, consumer behaviour, pricing, funding, product trends, and how people relate to AI companions.
Research-Backed Content
Writing by someone who already knows the category.
Writing built on the research and testing behind this site rather than on three hours of searching. My background is in professional writing. The difference here is what the writing draws on.
Expert Commentary and Interviews
Writing about AI companions?
I'm available to discuss AI companion products, AI relationships, industry trends, pricing, memory, product design, and the findings from my own research. Journalists and researchers: get in touch for comment, interviews, data questions, or additional breakdowns of my published work. Media inquiries are welcome and do not require a commercial engagement.
What I Bring That a Research Agency Does Not
Accounts created, free tiers exhausted and paid plans lived in, so I know the competitive landscape from inside the products rather than from their marketing.
I have met what users actually get after the paywall, including the parts that only show up in week three.
My work includes a survey of 2,150 U.S. adults on AI companionship, romance and relationship boundaries, run and analyzed in full.
The same memory test, the same image request and the same pricing questions put to competing products, so the comparisons hold up rather than resting on impressions.
Questions I Can Help Answer
- Which AI companion products have the strongest long-term memory?
- How does our onboarding compare with competing products?
- What do competitors really charge once subscriptions, credits and generation costs are counted together?
- Which features are becoming standard across AI companion apps?
- What does a user actually get from the free tier against the paid one?
- How are AI companion companies positioning themselves around romance, loneliness and emotional support?
- What does the existing research tell us about attitudes toward AI relationships?
- Where are the gaps in current AI companion research?
Independent Product Review and Feedback
If you're building an AI companion product, I can test it privately and give you structured feedback from the perspective of someone who has used a great many competing platforms: what works, what breaks, where the paywall lands emotionally, and how the product compares on the things users actually notice.
The Portfolio Is the Site
Nothing here is a case study written to win work. It is the work, published in full, methods included.
The State of AI Romance 2026
A survey of 2,150 U.S. adults on AI companionship, romance and relationship boundaries, with the full report and questionnaire published.
View the research →AI Companion Funding Tracker
30 companies and $415.6M in disclosed funding, compiled by hand and published under CC BY 4.0.
Explore the data →The 7-Day Memory Test
The same facts planted across 13 platforms and checked over seven days, against the feature these products sell hardest.
View the test →Hands-On Platform Reviews
Long-form living reviews built on real free and paid use, updated as the products change.
Browse the testing →The full index, with every method and download, is on Research.
How It Works
- Tell me the question
What are you trying to understand, test, compare or investigate?
- I propose an approach
What I would test or research, what you would receive, how long it takes and what it costs.
- I do the work
Depending on the project that means firsthand product testing, competitor research, data collection, analysis or writing.
- You receive the findings
As an agreed report, dataset, article, feedback document or consultation.
Commercial Work and Editorial Independence
The research and reviews published on AI Girlfriend Coach are independent of my commercial work. Companies can hire me for private research, product testing, feedback or consulting. They cannot pay for a favourable review, a ranking, a research result or an editorial conclusion. Where a commercial relationship is relevant to something I publish, I disclose it on the page.
That firewall is the whole reason the commercial work is worth anything. A tester whose findings can be bought is not testing, and the AI girlfriend apps I review are ranked on what they did in front of me and nothing else.
About Ranji
Founder of AI Girlfriend Coach. I research AI companions through original surveys, industry datasets and firsthand testing, paying for the subscriptions myself so the findings belong to nobody else. The full story, methodology and background are on the About page →
Have Something You Want Me to Investigate?
Tell me what you're building, researching or trying to understand. If it sits within the AI companion space and I think I can genuinely help, I'll tell you how I would approach it. If I can't, I'll say that instead.