Bumble introduces its AI dating assistant, ‘Bee’

Dating app maker Bumble is venturing into generative AI. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Bumble introduced a new AI assistant dubbed “Bee,” designed to become a personal matchmaker that learns “users’ values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions” through private chats. It then uses these insights to help find the most relevant matches for the user.

Currently, Bee is in beta and being tested internally, Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told investors, but it will launch in beta soon.

With Bee, the company envisions being able to capture more information about Bumble users, as it learns more about each individual’s story and what they really want. This could set Bumble apart from other apps like Tinder, which has also undergone an overhaul as the dating app market falters with Gen Z users.

Bumble says users will interact with Bee like they interact with other AI-powered chatbots, by typing and speaking in a more conversational style.

Initially, Bee will be used to power a new dating experience called Dates that uses AI to recommend matches, but in the future, Bumble says Bee will move into other areas, such as offering date suggestions or requesting anonymous feedback from your past matches.

On Dates, Bee will first get to know the user through a private conversation. It then identifies two people who have common intentions, values, and goals in the relationship. Both users are notified in the app with a description of why they would make a great match.

The addition is part of a technology- and AI-focused overhaul of the dating app, which has so far marketed itself as more focused on women’s needs. The company has pioneered features such as a “women-first message,” body shaming bans, and tools that blur unwanted explicit images, among others.

Now it’s looking to use AI to get back to user growth amid a dating market that’s seeing younger users, especially Generation Z, getting tired of swiping.

In fact, Hurd said Bumble will experiment with removing the long-popular swiping mechanism in select markets to see how users engage. Instead of prioritizing swiping as a binary “yes” or “no” choice, Bumble is looking to leverage other features, like new “class-based” profiles where members can connect with each other in different parts of a user’s life story. This will give Bumble more data to feed into its AI system and algorithms.

“We will provide more dynamic ways for someone to express interest in your story, rather than just your profile, and this will drive more dynamic engagement, spark better conversation, and ultimately drive better KPIs across the board — like engagement and opportunities for better conversations,” Wolfe Herd said. “You’ll also see that we take a more intentional approach to taking people offline compared to what people refer to as dead-end chat areas.”

The company is also looking at other ways to better meet the needs of Generation Z, a group that often prefers group socializing over one-on-one dates to get to know people.

The company has been adding AI to its app for years, rolling out changes like AI photo selection and feedback tools, for example, as well as in areas like safety. Wolfe Herd told investors that Bumble’s back-end infrastructure has been overhauled as the app bakes AI into itself.

The company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, with revenue of $224.2 million and average revenue per paid user rising 7.9% to $22.20. The stock rose about 40% after the news.