The AI dating arms race: Dating apps are betting millions that you'll fall back in love with them

Dating apps like Tinder , Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr are placing big bets on AI-powered matchmaking. They are hoping innovations in the space can combat the app fatigue that has stymied growth. Meanwhile, a new generation of startup apps is emerging, competing with the giants for the internet's singles. Dating apps' original pitch was to match you with anyone. "Swipe. Match. Chat. Date." That was Tinder's promise when it launched more than a decade ago, forecasting the endless cycle so many of its users now bemoan. Now they want to match you with the one. The giants in the dating space - Match Group's Hinge and Tinder, Grindr, and Bumble - are investing tens of millions into artificial intelligence, hoping to beat each other and the new AI-driven upstarts in the ultimate dating game. While, technically speaking, AI and machine learning have been used by dating app algorithms for years, these generative AI features take it further. The result, the companies say, will be meaningful: better matches, fewer swipes. Nothing short of "magical," as Grindr's CEO George Arison put it on a recent earnings call. "We're entering a platform shift with AI," Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff said during a Los Angeles Tech Week panel in October. AI is "changing everything" about the company's dating apps, he added. The space is ripe for change. The big players are struggling. There's frequent churn, the result of " swipe fatigue ," and many users are unwilling to shell out for premium features. "It's been a really long time since there's been a new reason - whether technology, platform, brand, whatever - for consumers to be excited about dating," Sam Yagan, cofounder of OkCupid and former CEO of Match Group, told Business Insider. Match Group's stock is down more than 75% over the past five years. Last month, the company reported quarterly results that missed Wall Street's earnings and revenue estimates. It is struggling to convert users into paying customers, a category that declined 5% last quarter compared to the same period a year ago. The share price for Bumble, meanwhile, is down more than 50% this year alone. The company laid off 30% of its staff over the summer, and last quarter, the app's paying users fell 18% from the same period last year. "They've gone through this period over the past few years where users have started to contract, and there's been this question of why," Morgan Stanley analyst Nathan Feather told Business Insider. "Simply, the product doesn't work as well as people expect it to." Startups are hoping to capitalize on that weakness. Several new apps have raised millions over the past couple of years. Just this month, Hinge founder Justin McLeod stepped down as CEO to found his own AI dating platform. Robot, robot, make me a match Cupid, matchmakers, classifieds, dating websites, swiping apps. No matter how you slice it, they all attempt to solve the same problem: helping you find the perfect match. AI, companies say, will...

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