Bumble launches ‘Bee’, an AI-powered dating assistant

Dating app company Bumble is moving further into generative AI. During its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, Bumble introduced a new AI assistant called “Bee,” which is designed to act as a personal matchmaker by learning about users’ “values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions” through private conversations. It then uses that information to help surface more relevant matches for each person.

At the moment, Bee is in a pilot phase and is being tested internally, Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told investors, but the company said it will move into beta soon.

With Bee, Bumble sees an opportunity to gather much deeper insights about its users as it learns more about each person’s story and what they are actually looking for. That could help distinguish Bumble from competitors like Tinder, which has also recently gone through changes as the dating app market has cooled, especially among Gen Z users.

Bumble said users will interact with Bee in much the same way they use other AI chatbots, through both typing and speaking in a more natural, conversational way.

At first, Bee will power a new dating experience called “Dates,” which uses AI to recommend matches. Over time, Bumble said Bee will expand to include other features, such as suggesting date ideas or requesting anonymous feedback from previous matches.

Within “Dates,” Bee will begin by learning about the user through a private onboarding conversation. It will then identify two people who share similar intentions, values, and relationship goals. Both users will be notified inside the app with an explanation of why they are considered a strong match.

The new feature is part of a broader technology- and AI-focused overhaul of Bumble, which has historically marketed itself as a platform centred on women’s needs. The company previously introduced features such as “women message first,” bans on body-shaming, and tools that blurred unsolicited explicit images, among others.

Now Bumble is looking to use AI as part of its effort to return to user growth in a dating market where younger users, especially Gen Z, are increasingly losing interest in swiping.

In fact, Wolfe Herd said Bumble plans to test removing the long-established swipe mechanic in certain markets to see how users respond. Rather than emphasising swipes as a simple binary “yes” or “no,” Bumble wants to lean more on other features, such as new “chapter-based” profiles where members can connect over different parts of a person’s life story. That, in turn, gives Bumble more data to feed into its AI systems and algorithms.

“We will be introducing more dynamic ways for somebody to express interest in your story, rather than just your profile, and this is going to drive more dynamic engagement, spark better conversation, and ultimately drive better KPIs across the board — like engagement and chances to get better conversations going,” Wolfe Herd said. “You will also see us take a much more deliberate approach to getting people offline versus just in what people refer to as dead-end chat zones.”

The company is also exploring other ways to better appeal to Gen Z, a group that often prefers socialising in groups rather than going straight to one-on-one dates to get to know new people.

Bumble has been working on adding AI to its app for several years, including features such as AI photo selection and feedback tools, as well as using AI in safety-related functions. Wolfe Herd told investors that the company’s back-end infrastructure had been overhauled as Bumble continued to integrate AI across the platform.

Bumble reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, with revenue reaching $224.2 million and average revenue per paying user rising 7.9% to $22.20. The company’s stock jumped about 40% following the announcement.