Dating Apps Turn to AI for Next Big Industry Transformation

Match Group said its plans for the future will be centered around AI, according to remarks company executives made at Investor Day. 

Executives from some of its more popular apps like Hinge, Tinder, OkCupid and more, teased how they were planning to implement AI on their platforms with the goal of transforming the way users interact with them, according to CNN. For example, Justin McLeod, the CEO of Hinge, said that they intend to “fully embrace” AI to personalize matching and to create smarter algorithms, as well as implementing AI coaching for struggling singles.

“While AI is not going to be a panacea when it comes to the very deeply and personal problem of love,” McLeod said at Investor Day, “I can tell you that it is going to transform the dating app experience, taking it from a do-it-yourself platform to an expertly guided journey that leads to far better outcomes and much better value to our daters.”

Paying users have been drifting away from dating apps and looking to other options lately, slowing the billion-dollar industry and leaving decision-makers to search for game-changing ideas. Dating app companies like Match Group now realize they must shake up the industry itself, much like Tinder did when it introduced swiping to online dating, ushering in a new generation of daters.

Dating app companies need to pivot, and they think AI is the answer.

Dating apps have been using AI for a number of features, from prompts to help people craft profiles (Hinge) or help them choose photos (Tinder), to implementing safety features like Bumble’s “Private Detector” which blurs explicit images before a user has to see them and “Deception Detector” which identifies fake profiles.

But now, the apps are talking about using AI in deeper ways – like offering users a “concierge service” as former Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd suggested, where a chatbot can help identify good matches, set up dates and respond to messages on a user’s behalf. This is intriguing to some daters now, who consider this sorting through endless options a very time-consuming process.

According to CNN, there was also talk at Investor Day of implementing AI Dating Coaches, which could help users by offering icebreakers and navigating conversations, but also to shed light on why someone isn’t matching or seeing positive results.

“Dating isn’t easy,” McLeod told investors, according to CNN. “Many people using the app don’t get that first match and don’t know why — whether it’s their photos, not sending enough likes or taking too long to ask a match on a date. A dating coach can step in with personalized suggestions.”

Whether it’s dating coaches or some other AI-driven feature, dating app companies seem to be experimenting to see what will attract newer, younger users.