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Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

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Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#141

Post by dopidopHN »

ancientworldnow wrote: post #133
threeseed wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think most people I know offline hate interacting with chat bots as products It's hilarious to me when people are bringing back chat bots as a concept. We had chat bots a few years ago and it was something that almost all larger companies had built strategies around. The idea being that they could significantly reduce call centre staff and improve customer experience. And it wasn't just that the quality of the co…

No, it's that chat bots have no actual power to fix most issues. They exist to make it more difficult to escalate up the bureaucracy where there is staff that can actually problem solve, issue refunds, give credits, etc. Chat bots are merely a filter to get rid of easily pacified pushover customers and those who refuse to read instructions or documentation.

On point.

A few chatbot can actually do stuff and then it’s fine.

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#143

Post by tmccrary55 »

dopidopHN wrote: post #141
ancientworldnow wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's that chat bots have no actual power to fix most issues. They exist to make it more difficult to escalate up the bureaucracy where there is staff that can actually problem solve, issue refunds, give credits, etc. Chat bots are merely a filter to get rid of easily pacified pushover customers and those who refuse to read instructions or documentation.

On point. A few chatbot can actually do stuff and then it’s fine.

Until it isn't?

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#144

Post by foobarchu »

ancientworldnow wrote: post #133
threeseed wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think most people I know offline hate interacting with chat bots as products It's hilarious to me when people are bringing back chat bots as a concept. We had chat bots a few years ago and it was something that almost all larger companies had built strategies around. The idea being that they could significantly reduce call centre staff and improve customer experience. And it wasn't just that the quality of the co…

No, it's that chat bots have no actual power to fix most issues. They exist to make it more difficult to escalate up the bureaucracy where there is staff that can actually problem solve, issue refunds, give credits, etc. Chat bots are merely a filter to get rid of easily pacified pushover customers and those who refuse to read instructions or documentation.

And the ones that can do something would be better served as a simple form.

My state has used a chatbot for car registration renewals for years. It works just fine, I can't truly complain, but it's literally just a higher friction way to fill in a short form. Why did it need to be a chatbot?

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#145

Post by satvikpendem »

ancientworldnow wrote: post #133
threeseed wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think most people I know offline hate interacting with chat bots as products It's hilarious to me when people are bringing back chat bots as a concept. We had chat bots a few years ago and it was something that almost all larger companies had built strategies around. The idea being that they could significantly reduce call centre staff and improve customer experience. And it wasn't just that the quality of the co…

No, it's that chat bots have no actual power to fix most issues. They exist to make it more difficult to escalate up the bureaucracy where there is staff that can actually problem solve, issue refunds, give credits, etc. Chat bots are merely a filter to get rid of easily pacified pushover customers and those who refuse to read instructions or documentation.

Yep, if a chatbot could do all those things then I'd honestly rather use that chatbot than talk to a human, unless I had some very specific concern. But it seems that GPT models can understand other humans just fine.

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#146

Post by [deleted] »

BillFranklin wrote: post #7

This is a nice post, and I think it will resonate with most new AI startups. My advice would be don't build an AI product at all. To my mind an "x product" is rarely the framing that will lead to value being added for customers. E.g. a web3 product, an observability product, a machine vision product, an AI product. Like all decent startup ideas the obviously crucial thing is to start with a real user need rather than…

[deleted]

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#147

Post by m3kw9 »

The latency is still too slow to build LLM products other than chatbots where people expects a delay. The rate limit is also a non starter. And most app ideas involving LLM only differ in how well the UI is done. That’s the differentiator right now in AI apps

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#148

Post by rmbyrro »

satvikpendem wrote: post #145
ancientworldnow wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's that chat bots have no actual power to fix most issues. They exist to make it more difficult to escalate up the bureaucracy where there is staff that can actually problem solve, issue refunds, give credits, etc. Chat bots are merely a filter to get rid of easily pacified pushover customers and those who refuse to read instructions or documentation.

Yep, if a chatbot could do all those things then I'd honestly rather use that chatbot than talk to a human, unless I had some very specific concern. But it seems that GPT models can understand other humans just fine.

What do you mean by "other" humans?

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#149

Post by TobyTheDog123 »

DonHopkins wrote: post #110
hubraumhugo wrote: post #40

As in every hype cycle: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. A little while ago the hammer was blockchain, now it's AI.

Blockchain isn't anywhere near as useful as a hammer. If you were gullible enough to fall for the promises of the blockchain, then of course you're going to be disappointed that AI isn't a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme that will make you millions of dollars without any investment of time or energy or original thought, because if that's all you're looking for, you're going to be continuously disappointed (and deserve…

I don't really understand your hostile response nor foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of blockchain technology (I'm guessing it came from a bad interaction with a crypto bro on Twitter or something), however I think OP is just saying that both were popular technological trends that people tries to exploit to solve problems that society didn't really have.

One technology is obviously more helpful than the other, but that doesn't mean either are the right choice for the business you're building.

Re: Don't build AI products the way everyone else is doing it

#150

Post by EMM_386 »

BillFranklin wrote: post #7

This is a nice post, and I think it will resonate with most new AI startups. My advice would be don't build an AI product at all. To my mind an "x product" is rarely the framing that will lead to value being added for customers. E.g. a web3 product, an observability product, a machine vision product, an AI product. Like all decent startup ideas the obviously crucial thing is to start with a real user need rather than…

> This is regardless of quality, bots are rarely as good as speaking with a real human being.

I actually have enjoyed my limited experience with Amazon's customer service bots. And that's only because I have an account with them since forever.

And I can see why they are now the target of refund scammers.

In many cases, the conversation is as simple as "I recently bought [x] and I would like to return it" resulting in "You can keep it, we will send you another one".

That, to me, is a wildly better outcome than anything I could get on a phone. Nothing to do with the fact they told me just to keep what they sent me, but how quickly it can be resolved.

"Another satisified customer"

This is obviously based off my past purchase history, my rate of returns is, etc.

That's fine. It works.

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