Morganton woman creates AI-assisted app to match rescue dogs with potential adopters
If you’re looking for a date, there is Tinder, Match.com and Hinge for matchmaking.
If you’re looking for a dog, now there is The Human-Canine Alliance, an AI-powered human-canine matchmaking platform.
The app, which is browser-based and free for people and rescues, uses artificial intelligence to match people with rescue dogs based on lifestyle, wellness and personality factors.
Stacie J. King, founder of the Human Canine Alliance app, plays with a puppy at the Burke County Animal Resource Center, while Pailyn Benton, 5, watches.
Stacie J. King, who lives in Morganton, is the founder of The Human-Canine Alliance and launched the app in April. She started the organization in January 2025. However, it’s only been a month since King has had it ready for a rescue to use. She coordinated with Burke County Animal Resource Center for the launch of the pilot program. She was recently at the center to demonstrate how the matchmaking service works.
King said the attorney general in 2023 declared loneliness a public health epidemic. Add to that the fact that more than 1,000 dogs are euthanized every day in the U.S., and the idea for the AI-assisted matchmaking app was born.
Stacie J. King, left, founder of the Human Canine Alliance matchmaking app, and Pailyn Benton, 5, play with puppies at the Burke County Animal Resource Center recently.
“The Human-Canine Alliance is the first AI-powered human canine matchmaking platform built as a digital public health tool and designed to provide solutions for both of these problems,” King said.
The platform aims to address loneliness of people and the euthanasia of dogs, with more than 9,000 dogs and 250 rescues from across the U.S. listed on the app, King said.
To participate, people can go to the app, click “Get Match” and take the five-minute personality quiz. You don’t have to register or put in your name unless you want to save your matches.
The quiz has questions regarding personality, wellness, activities and work schedule. King said the answers to the questions remain private.
“It's not going anywhere,” King said of the answers. “Even the rescues don't see it.”
Stacie J. King shows her matchmaking app for humans and canines at the Burke County Animal Resource Center.
After the quiz, participants receive matches.
People can go through the matches, decide which ones they want to meet and then visit them at the rescue, King said. She said she’s tried to minimize any barriers to people and rescues using the app.
King said the app is auto-updated on a daily to weekly basis.
The pilot started about four weeks ago with Burke County Animal Resource Center, and there were two successful matches at that point, King said.
King, whose professional background is in technology and marketing, said she has zero intention of rescues paying to use the app.
“I want this to be a completely free tool for rescues. I think rescues pay for enough,” King said. “I have every intention of, over time, the for-profit companies paying for it.”
A dog waits to be adopted at Burke County Animal Resource Center.
King said rescues provide the pets that bolster a $150 billion pet industry, and less than half a percent of that money goes to rescues.
“And as a marketer with a really strong background in understanding supply and demand, that really irks me,” King said.
King said she wants the AI-assisted app to become a tool for rescues. She wants it to become a new way for people looking for a pet to adopt.
The Human-Canine Alliance was recently offered a seat in the next NC Sea Change Accelerator Cohort program, King said. It's a 16-week program designed to help structure The Human-Canine Alliance as a social enterprise, an organization that provides societal impact while sustaining that impact with profitable revenue, she explained.
Little Bear is an older dog waiting to be adopted at Burke County Animal Resource Center.
To watch a video about how the app works, visit this link.
To find a match, visit humancaninealliance.com.
