AI social matching works best when the system knows what relationship you are looking for now, not only who you are in general. An intent card is a short, temporary description such as “I’m in Singapore this week and want to meet founders building AI video products.” A good card gives the system enough structure to find relevant people without turning your entire private profile into matching data.

State one clear goal

Use one primary objective per card: find a collaborator, language partner, local friend, investor introduction or creator partnership.

If you have several unrelated goals, create separate cards rather than writing one long description that mixes business and personal social needs.

Add location only as precisely as necessary

City or neighborhood may be enough for most discovery. Exact address is rarely needed.

For remote collaboration, you may only need timezone or region rather than physical location.

Include timing and availability

“This week,” “weekday evenings,” or “before the end of October” helps the system distinguish an active need from a long-term interest.

Temporary cards should expire automatically so old goals do not keep generating recommendations months later.

Choose the relationship type

Business, study, friendship and creator-fan discovery use different matching criteria. Being explicit reduces awkward recommendations.

If the product supports multiple relationship modes, make sure the card is attached to the one you actually want.

Set what is visible to other people

You may allow the system to use certain details internally without showing them on your public profile. Review which parts of the intent candidate users can see.

Sensitive reasons for the request can remain private while the shareable goal stays simple.

Close or edit the card when the goal changes

Once you find a collaborator or leave the city, stop the card instead of letting it continue influencing recommendations.

Our AI social discovery privacy checklist covers the wider data boundary. Intent cards are most useful when they stay current, narrow and under user control.

The best intent card is not a complete biography. It is a concise description of what you want now, with enough time, location and relationship context for AI to search intelligently while keeping unrelated personal information out of the matching process.

After publishing an intent card, review the first several recommendations and edit the card based on the mismatch reason rather than adding more generic biography. If candidates are in the wrong city, clarify location; if they have the wrong relationship goal, clarify whether you want business, study or friendship; if results are too narrow, remove one unnecessary constraint. Iterating the intent itself is usually more effective than adding dozens of profile interests that do not relate to the current goal.

Write intent cards for the current situation

An intent card should tell another person what kind of connection is useful now. “Looking for a video editor for a two-week project in Kuala Lumpur” gives clearer direction than listing a profession and hoping the algorithm guesses. Useful fields include purpose, relevant interests or skills, language, approximate availability and when the request expires.

Not every field needs to be public. A user may want a city-level match without exposing their precise location or contact details until both sides accept an introduction.

Test the explanation before contacting anyone

A good recommendation should explain shared intent or complementary skills in ordinary language. If the reason feels irrelevant, the user should be able to change the card rather than rebuild their profile from the beginning.

Close or pause the card when the goal has been achieved. Continuing to match people for an expired project is a failure of intent management, even if those people look compatible according to old profile data.

Intent cards should not force users to disclose information merely to improve ranking. A professional goal can be matched using a broad city, topic and availability window without publishing a precise address, private employer or personal contact details. The introduction step is where both participants can decide whether to share more.

For quality assurance, create a few competing cards with similar interests but different intent. A user seeking a co-founder should not automatically be matched with everyone who enjoys startup content. The explanation needs to show the current shared goal, not just superficial profile similarity.