The Billion-Dollar Industry of Loneliness and the Future of Emotional Infrastructure There’s a quiet economy growing around our deepest emotional need. Connection. It doesn’t scream like crypto. It doesn’t trend like AI image tools. But it is expanding, globally and quietly, into the very space we once reserved for intimacy. It’s the business of loneliness. AI is now at the center of it. The New Emotional Marketplace According to a 2025 study from GlobalData, the AI companion