There are few things more humbling than realizing that your child's maths homework is far beyond your capabilities. This happened to me over the weekend when my daughter was struggling with a problem. I tried to help but got stuck (if you remember what an improper subset is, I tip my cap to you), so I turned to ChatGPT for help. It was clear, easy, and fast. This was my first hands-on experience with AI and education, and it was eye-opening.
Education is known to be a market ripe for disruption. Will AI help or harm? Sal Khan has an inspiring Ted Talk that demonstrates the promise of AI for teachers and students convincingly. In reality, the results are mixed. When students use AI as a crutch, their academic performance suffers. However, when students use AI with safeguards (i.e., not just giving students and answer when stuck) the results are positive. I feel for teachers who need to adapt so quickly to this new reality, so it’s cool to see AI tools being used to help prepare for classes and to create quizzes for students. South Korean schools are even developing AI textbooks that are tailored to how students learn and provide teachers with dashboards to track progress. Hopefully there will also be new AI tools for mathematically challenged parents.
Top AI Apps
Andreesen Horowitz has released a new edition of its Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps study. It assesses the popularity of AI tools on desktop and mobile based on visits and usage. Key takeaways: the top category (52%) remains creative tools, Claude and Perplexity are eating into ChatGPTs big lead, and many new entrants are on the list (e.g., Luma, Viggle, SeaArt). One category that continues to grow is AI companion apps like Character AI. Creating your own AI friend does not seem like the healthiest path to companionship to me, and even OpenAI has warned that users risk forming emotional ties with its Her-like ChatGPT voice mode. But my favourite new unhealthy category is “Aesthetics”, which includes apps that judge your personal appearance. Feel worse about yourself by using Umax for $4.99 per week.
AI & Productivity
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently posted that AI has increased internal software development productivity by $260 million in annualized efficiency gains. But many other businesses are not seeing AI live up to the hype. So, what can businesses do to more successfully adopt and benefit from AI?
Ensure that your AI adoption plan is coherent, and not a mix of ad hoc projects tackled in isolation.
Align AI pilots with the business outcomes they support, and put performance metrics in place.
Do not overlook the necessary process changes to put in place to accommodate the use of AI.
Start with use cases that complement (not replace) current tools, such as data analysis and research.
Gradually roll-out AI to prevent burnout among staff who are asked to use new tools on top of their existing workload.
Cool Beans
Google is rolling out AI features that integrate with its apps, allowing users to ask questions about email (e.g., “catch me up on emails about X”) and ask questions about photos (e.g., “when did we travel to Y”).
SportAI: A cool example of computer vision being used to analyze and course-correct a tennis swing. One of many tools expected to be released in the sports market, which is expect to reach $30 billion by 2032.
Airbnb Postcards: Very cool case study on creating localized postcards at scale from an Airbnb technologist. Would love to see more of these ‘under the hood’ case studies vs. award submissions.
IX / Neo: Not sure if this is an actual product or part of a teaser campaign for an AI robot sci-fi movie, but either way a life-sized humanoid robot assistant that cleans my house has my attention.
Fresh Research
What’s Next Shopping Report (TikTok): Highlights what’s trending on the platform that might interest marketers. Interesting to see personal finance trending as a category as young creators are talking casually and transparently about their goals and habits.
AI & Consumer Search Behaviour (Datos): Reviews search behaviour, and reveals that while Google continues to dominate, Perplexity is expanding rapidly (more monthly desktop webpage visits than ChatGPT).
AI & Occupational Exposure (StatsCan): Analyzes hundreds of jobs to determine the impact of AI. Most at risk of replacement (computer coding / data entry), least at risk (plumbers, carpenters). Nothing on digital strategy consultant / marketing trainer-types who write newsletters.
