After years of shrinking usage and tumbling stock prices, the dating app Bumble is teasing a major change to its product. But in solving one problem, it might be walking right into another. The company told Axios this month that it’s getting rid of a dating app mainstay: the swipe. The feature made it easy for people to carelessly flick through photos, said CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, leading to a user experience with too many dead-end conversations. Going forward, Bumble will focus on features that make for deeper, more meaningful connections, she said. Namely, an AI assistant named “Bee”.

While it’s still unclear exactly what Bee will do, its responsibilities will include punching up users’ profiles by suggesting better options for their photos and personal blurbs. Bumble says it will also use AI to chat with people about their dating preferences and help them find others with similar “values”.

Bumble – known, when it was launched, for its women’s-empowerment angle, as the only major dating app that didn’t allow men to initiate private messages – is in a pickle, and it’s not alone. Consumer tech companies are being told by consultants and Silicon Valley types that to succeed, they’ll have to integrate AI into their products, and quickly. Failing to do so could land them in........

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