According to CEO Lidiane Jones, AI could soon be your dating partner when you use the dating app Bumble. As people continue to adapt the way they look for love with technology, Jones explained during Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia technology conference this year that Bumble has plans to enhance its usual setup with new AI-powered tools in the coming months.
Jones outlined the company’s plans to enhance the app with AI tools that aim to improve the user experience, particularly in the areas of profile creation and conversation support. That includes AI help in choosing profile photos. The idea is to make the first step of creating a profile easier, making it easier for users to actually try to match with others on the app. AI help in choosing photos is another idea that Tinder is also developing, meaning it may become a new standard option in the dating app world.
“We want to keep the bar high for profiling, but we want to reduce the friction that exists for users,” Jones said. “Users have a lot of anxiety about creating profiles. We’re going to make it as easy as possible. That’s why AI for profiling is a big priority.”
If photo assistance works well among users, Jones hinted that AI could be applied to help users create their profile bio and suggestions for conversation starters. AI could help with icebreakers and better communication in general. It's something Bumble has been testing in its Bumble for Friends app, but hasn't been available on the dating app before. Jones noted that icebreakers can be a challenge, but AI can help create personalized opening lines based on a match's profile to overcome that hurdle.
Matchmaking artificial intelligence
While Jones is excited about how AI can help users actively search for love, he was especially keen to point out how Bumble has been implementing AI into its safety tools for several years. For example, Bumble’s Scam Detector can spot fake profiles, pesky spammers, and people trying to scam other users. And, to prevent the dreaded unsolicited nude photo, the AI-powered Private Detector automatically blurs nude images shared in chats.
More recently, Bumble added the ability to report any profile with what appear to be AI-generated images or videos, which is explicitly prohibited by the app. Bumble wants people to trust its app and that the people they meet are real and not an AI-driven hoax. That’s crucial, since dating apps aren’t as popular with single people as they once were. Tinder and Bumble see AI as a way to improve their apps and encourage users, and there’s a lot of potential for highly personalized matchmaking tools through AI — but it won’t matter if no one meets anyone they want to date at least once. Bumble’s conscious effort to center those human connections on the app shows that Jones and her team know that, stripped of the bells and whistles of AI, people using a dating app just want an easier way to meet someone.
“One of the key principles for us, as we increasingly adopt AI in our products and services, is to make sure that AI doesn’t replace users. We think AI can make it easier for you to introduce yourself, but we still want users to be themselves. We want them to speak for themselves. So we have a very clear set of principles,” Jones said. “We’re very excited about using AI for future innovation in this space, but again, with the principle of people meeting real people.”
