One of the clearest examples of how AI is reshaping jobs didn't come from Silicon Valley - it came from Match Group, the owner of Tinder. CFO Steven Bailey publicly stated that the company is slowing hiring - to be able to pay for AI tools for its workforce.

„We're making a big push around AI". Translation: every employee gets access to the most advanced tools. The price? „The tools cost a lot, and the way we are paying for that is by slowing hiring plans for the rest of the year." That is, in black and white: AI is replacing future hires before they even arrive.

The company has promised investors that this will be „cost neutral" - fewer new hires plus more AI software will balance out. Better still: AI productivity will lift revenue. Promises or truth - time will tell. But the logic is clear: if one worker plus AI does the job of two, the second is never hired.

Tinder, meanwhile, is trying to survive. In the first quarter, monthly active users dropped by 7% (last year the fall was 10%). Sign-ups are growing for the first time since 2024 - but only by 1%. Quarterly revenue is 864 million dollars, up 4% year-on-year. Forecast for next quarter? Lower.

The Balkan note: young people in the Balkans, like everywhere else, are stepping off Tinder and showing up at „IRL" events - running clubs, book clubs, hobbies that widen the circle of acquaintances. That's a global trend, not just a Macedonian one. CFO Spencer Rascoff admits it: „Gen Z desperately wants to connect. They know they want to meet new people. They just want it to happen the easy way - not like a job interview."

Tinder is realising the algorithm isn't enough. Match Group is pivoting to its own IRL events. That's an admission that the dating model they built - swipe left, swipe right - is generationally exhausted. The question: can this company invent something new, or will it watch new generations head out for a run instead.