Ravi Mehta says consumer demand for AI assistance has surged in the past 18 months, but traditional chat interfaces are clunky. He advocates for guided, structured AI experiences where the AI asks questions instead of users typing them out. Typeform's Formless and telehealth apps like Ro show the model works.
Michael, do you want to come on? And then we'll try to squeeze you in right after that, Dave, if we can.
Sure. Thank you, Ravi, for taking the time to answer our questions here. I'm super interested in when you were talking about generative AI and use in marketplaces, the second one that you mentioned, which is potentially like first line of defense for customer questions, answers about the platform, or even answers about the supply side. I happen to think that like that could, that could be better than humans. My question for you is, is the demand side ready for that? And how do you roll it out in a way that, you know, given that the first generation of chatbots were so bad, how do you do it in a way that doesn't put off your consumers because they're not talking to an actual human being initially?
Yeah, I think the demand side is ready, especially given just the The prominence of AI, the number of people using these chat interfaces. So I think they're more ready than they ever have been, and there's been a step change in readiness over the last 18 to 24 months. But you raise a really, really good question, which is, is chat the right interface? And I think in most cases, chat is like not a great interface. It puts a lot of Work on the person to type in a lot of content, to know what questions to ask, and then to pull from the chatbot the answers that you want. Instead, I think there will be other interfaces that are more guided and more structured that enable a better communication with the person. A really good example of this— there's not great examples of this yet, but But one that I like is Formless, which is a product by Typeform, which enables you to create a generative AI-backed survey. You know, right now the functionality is a little bit limited, like they can definitely expand on it, but it's a new product. And what it does is it shifts the onus from I as the consumer have to ask questions to the AI is actually asking me questions, and that changes the dynamic a lot. If you can do that, plus add in structured responses so that you can tap and click your way through the generative AI experience, I think that that takes a lot of the friction out and will create an experience that is much more, I think, palatable to customers. So for example, another really interesting example of this, this doesn't use AI, but Ro and Hims are both really good examples of great intake flows. Ro will ask you 40 questions before you convert. That goes against everything related to consumer rate of conversion rate optimization, right? It's supposed to be the shortest path to conversion, not the longest. But Ro is a very long path, and they ask you a set of questions along the way that help you understand what's on offer, what your options are as a patient, which help you learn more about the different treatments, and then ultimately when you convert, you convert as a much more qualified and informed patient. And I think taking those static intake experiences and putting a generative AI layer on top will be the next chapter of how that goes. I could see legal marketplaces doing that. I could see that working in a lot of different places.
