Bumble's CEO says AI could give you fewer matches — but better ones

Bumble wants to use generative AI to figure out how users actually interact with others. That could lead to fewer but better matches, its CEO says.

• Bumble wants to use AI to give you fewer matches on its app.
• But the people you do match with will be better, CEO Lidiane Jones said at a conference Tuesday.
• Bumble has floated several other ideas for using AI, such as "dating concierges." 

Some day, AI could mean you get matched with fewer people on Bumble.

But that actually wouldn't be a bad thing, according to the company's CEO.

"We really want to emphasize a smaller number of matches, but ones that truly, truly feel great to you and not just from a romantic perspective," Lidiane Jones told an audience at The Future of Everything Festival hosted by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Until now, Bumble relied on a mostly predictive model. "You get a system to look at your previous behaviors and determine to the best of its ability what you're going to like," Jones said.

But using generative AI, Bumble wants to pick up on other cues, such as how people on dates interact with each other and even your tone of voice.

The goal, Jones said, is to figure out what people actually want in a relationship instead of relying on self-written descriptions. People often ask for help from friends when they write blurbs for their profiles, but those aren't always accurate, she said. "It's OK to start with a very optimistic view of ourselves, but we can learn with you along the way," she said.

AI could also draw on other details of your life to provide better matches, Jones said, such as whether you're new to a city.

"There's all these phases in life that are extremely vulnerable for people and we think we can play a role in helping you navigate," she added.

Bumble has been considering ways of integrating AI into its app for months. Last year, founder Whitney Wolfe Herd said AI could even help users flirt and interact with others.

Wolfe Herd has also suggested that dating on the app could one day happen through "dating concierges," or AI models that could quickly review thousands of other users to narrow your choices to a few likely candidates.

Already, AI can become your date, offering advice and companionship.