AI could soon be your wingman on the dating app Bumble, according to CEO Lidiane Jones. As people continue to adapt their search for love with technology, Jones explained at this year’s Goldman Sachs Communacopia Technology conference that Bumble plans to expand its usual setup with new AI tools in the coming months.
Jones outlined the company’s plans to enhance the app with AI tools aimed at improving the user experience, particularly in the areas of profile creation and conversation support. That includes AI help with picking profile photos. The idea is to make it easier to take that first step in creating a profile, making it easier for users to try and actually match with others on the app. AI help with picking photos is also an idea Tinder is pursuing, meaning it could become a new default option in the world of dating apps.
“We want to keep the bar high for profiling, but we want to reduce the friction that users experience,” Jones said. “Users have a lot of anxiety around profiling. We’re going to make that as frictionless as possible. So AI for profiling is a big one.”
If the photo assistant is a hit with users, Jones hinted that AI could be applied to help users craft their profile bios and prompts for starting conversations. AI could help with icebreakers and better communication in general. It’s something Bumble has tested on its Bumble for Friends app, but hasn’t been available on the dating app before. Jones pointed out that icebreakers can be a challenge, but AI could help create personalized opening lines based on a match’s profile to help overcome that hurdle.
Matchmaker AI
While Jones is excited about how AI can help users actively pursue romance, he was especially keen to highlight how Bumble has been using AI in its safety tools for years. For example, Bumble’s Deception Detector can spot fake profiles, annoying spammers, and people trying to scam other users. And to help prevent the dreaded unsolicited nude photo, Bumble’s AI-powered Private Detector automatically blurs nude photos shared in chats.
More recently, Bumble added the ability to report profiles 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 encounter are real and not an AI-driven hoax. That’s crucial, since dating apps aren’t as popular for singles 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 via AI, but it won’t matter if no one meets someone 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 people using a dating app, without all the AI bells and whistles, just want an easier way to meet someone.
“One of the key principles for us, as we embrace more and more AI in our products and services, is to make sure that AI doesn’t replace users. And we believe that AI can help you show up, but we still want users to be themselves. We want them to speak for themselves. And so we have a very clear set of principles,” Jones said. “We’re really excited about using AI for future innovation here, but again, with the principle of people meeting real people.”