Fed up with writing dating profiles? Or sick and tired of swiping? Dating apps not really doing it for you? Let a digital sidekick take the strain.While user fatigue may be setting in – reports suggest a notable decline in usage – the world’s biggest online dating company is launching an artificial intelligence assistant that it claims will “transform” online dating.Match Group, the technology company with the world’s largest portfolio of dating platforms, has announced it is increasing investment in AI with new products coming in March 2025.An as yet unnamed AI assistant will perform core dating tasks such as selecting the photos it calculates will garner the most responses and recommend what prompts and information to put in a bio. It will also help a user choose the perfect partner.The AI will conduct a spoken interview with the user to establish what they want to get out of their dating experience, and will suggest what messages to send to people they are matched with based on interests.The company has also said AI will provide “effective coaching for struggling users”, which will include tips for people who are failing to get matches about how to attract more attention to their profile.Bernard Kim, the chief executive of Match Group, told investors this month that the focus on AI would be the beginning of a new phase in the company labelled “AI transformation”.“This technology is revolutionary for dating, and we’re bringing it to life across our entire portfolio. I envision AI to be felt through the entire experience, influencing everything from profile creation to matching and connecting for dates, literally everything.”An Ofcom report last month showed that dating app usage was down from last year, with the two main apps owned by Match Group – Tinder and Hinge – losing nearly 750,000 subscribers between them in the UK.Gary Swidler, the president and chief financial officer of Match Group, said AI would streamline the dating experience and that the company was investing in the technology now so that its benefits would “manifest themselves over time” for investors and users.“There’s lots of information that AI can pull out of somebody else’s profile and offer help to make the matching process and the post-match process a lot better – you get better efficiency because you put in less effort and you’ve got better outcomes.”The technology is not without its critics, however. Anastasiia Babash, a PhD candidate and junior research fellow at the University of Tartu in Estonia, and a member of the international Ethical Dating Online project, has said the increased reliance on AI in dating could be detrimental to people’s ability to interact without it.“There is a risk that users who rely on AI in their dating life may potentially experience more dependency on technology and a diminishing of their personal agency. If people start to rely on AI to handle their conversations with potential dates, there
Gio. Gen 9th, 2025
