iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI
- I went to a dating app conference in New York City.
- AI’s role in dating was a hotly debated topic at the event.
- While some dating app leaders were excited about the potential of AI agents, others were skeptical.
What is AI’s place in dating?
That was the big question this week at the Social Discovery and Dating Conference in New York City, hosted by Global Dating Insights, a UK-based publication covering the dating industry.
In a room with about 50 attendees and several virtual speakers, dating app executives, startup founders, and partners discussed the state of the industry. (Not present, however, were representatives from heavyweights Match Group or Bumble.)
The topic brought up in almost every panel: AI.
It’s a tricky line to toe for many of these platforms. Dating is intimate, and dating apps have already faced criticism for the ways technology — like swiping — has left some users burned out when it comes to finding love online.
At the same time, AI could shake up online dating experiences.
We’ve already seen companies like Replika create AI chatbots that people can date. Meta has boyfriend-themed chatbots right within Instagram DMs. And other startups are trying to use LLMs to help people date more efficiently, such as AI dating assistant app Rizz or AI matchmaking apps like Sitch.
Alexandra Beaumont, CEO of the dating app Once (where you get one match a day), talked about the potential AI agents could have on dating during one of the panels.
These agents could learn how you communicate and what you want out of a partner, and act as a kind of companion through the dating process. Beaumont said future dating apps could incorporate these types of agents to match users with one another.
It’s a topic that some investors have also brought up to me outside of this conference. One example of an app doing this is Gigi, a French dating app that pitches itself to users as an “AI wingwoman.”
Ethan Martin, CEO of Slide, a UK-based dating app for 18- to 28-year-olds, said on another panel that AI could be useful for his company internally for tasks like building its algorithms.
Panelists identified a few other categories in which AI could help dating platforms: saving users time on the app, improving matching, trust and safety, and customer service.
Are users on board, though?
“I haven’t seen it so far where someone has managed to create an AI tool that the users really want to use when it comes to dating,” Martin said, pointing to examples like AI dating assistants. “I still think we’re maybe a few years from that.”
Other dating app insiders expressed concerns about how AI could undermine users’ search for human connection, especially the concept of actually dating an AI avatar.
“I couldn’t possibly unleash the world of AI on my widows or widowers,” said Nicky Wake, founder of Chapter 2, a dating app for widows and widowers. “That would only end in tears.”