What factors drive success in consumer AI products?

Sam Stephenson

Founder · Granola

Usefulness to Users

Sam Stephenson says the important thing is making something actually useful to somebody and ensuring they get daily value from it, not just shipping, because building is so easy that builders must sweat details.

Tamar Yehoshua

Chief Product and AI Officer · Atlassian

Focus on the Customer

Tamar Yehoshua says to focus on the customer and what they can get out of it, since you have to figure out what's actually working for your customers.

Josh Elman

Director of Product Management · Apple

Benefit Humanity

Josh Elman says the one thing he learned at Apple is that the industry must be grounded in building technology that benefits humanity, and that should guide choices.

The answer starts at 29:46.

Brian McMullin

Senior Vice President and Head of Product · Network Solutions

Personalization, Context, Education

Brian McMullin says the most effective approach is personalization, providing context, and educating actions, because users care more about the value AI provides than the technology behind it.

The answer starts at 7:38.

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Jonathan Evens

Product Lead · Google Deepmind

Solving Pain Points

Jonathan Evens says solving pain points is what matters, since building a great product means elegantly solving a real human problem and eliminating friction.

Dilani Kahawala

Co-Founder and CEO

Reliability, Interface, User Education

Dilani Kahawala says the three biggest challenges she's had to think about are reliability, the interface, and teaching users how to work with an agent, because consumers don't have patience for an assistant getting something wrong.

Peter Deng

General Partner · Felicis Ventures

Trust

Peter Deng says trust is the key factor for consumer AI products, asking who users trust with their data and whose answers they rely on.

Jim Rosen

Chief Product Officer · Mortgage Cadence

Purposeful Outcomes

Jim Rosen says the important thing is being purposeful about outcomes, not adopting AI for its own sake; AI without focus, structure and purpose just gets in the way.

Ravi Mehta

Angel Investor · Traveljoy

Craft and Taste

Ravi Mehta says craft—how much a human can create what they're asking for—and taste—the creator's ability to judge what's good—are the two elements that go into the human's role in AI product building.