AI voice agents are on 🔥

We're moving from the innovator -> early adopter part of the curve, with new startups sprouting up weekly to serve different verticals.

What @illscience and I are seeing @a16z, and why we're excited 👇 Not every business is ready for today's voice agents.

The early adopters tend to have a few things in common:

They heavily rely on calls to drive new business. These calls have a defined task or structure, and the stakes are (relatively) low - they're not life-or-death.

🚨 New @a16z investment thesis: AI scribes.

Imagine if you had a superhuman assistant that listened to your conversations, took perfect notes, and flagged follow-ups.

And, it could make you smarter by surfacing insights or trends you missed.

More from me & @illscience👇 Let's start with the history of scribes.

It's an ancient profession dating back to the invention of written language.

The role was critical in facilitating communication of all kinds - business, legal, religious, etc. - as well as recording history.

🚨 New @a16z investment thesis!

It's time for AI to reinvent the phone call - enter conversational voice agents 📱

What we're excited to invest in + market maps (from me and @illscience) 👇 @a16z @illscience We see use cases for voice agents across B2B and B2C.

For businesses - replace labor with software!

For consumers - provide access to previously expensive services (therapy, coaching, etc.) + unlock new types of conversations.

Read our full thesis here: gamma.app/docs/a16z-Real…

🚨 Announcing...the top 100 consumer genAI apps!

We ranked every AI web product by usage - and for the first time, ranked mobile apps too.

Consumer AI is moving fast, with some major updates since our last ranks 6 months ago.

Our takeaways 👇

1️⃣ The pace of progress is breakneck 🏃‍♀️

In our web ranks, ChatGPT kept the lead, and eight of the top ten were consistent from our last list.

But, the list also saw 22 new entrants out of 50 (44%!)

Plus, major moves ⬆️ from cos like @MeetGamma and @elevenlabsio.

I built an AI tool for anyone who wants to be a better friend ✋

With ZERO manual intervention, it will detect who has a birthday coming up, find a flower shop local to them, and order / deliver a gift - right on time!

Here's how 👇 To start - this tool is powered by @zapier.

You begin by creating a new "Zap," which is the app that hosts the workflow for your automation.

You'll also be using @ChatGPTapp and @usebland later on, hold tight!

🚨 New market map!

Our team @a16z consumer dove into AI x productivity tools. These products don't just help you organize tasks...they complete them for you.

What we're excited about 👇 @a16z To start: productivity tools have a long and mixed history. They've mostly been the domain of hyper-enthusiasts for a reason!

There's no shortage of software to get you organized, but you still have to execute items manually.

What if a to-do list could do things for you? 🤔

I've always wanted an AI that can prep me for my meetings...so I built one!

It emails me 15 minutes prior with a primer on:
1) Who I'm meeting
2) Where they work
3) Topics to cover

How I did it 👇 To start - what platform did I use?

I tested ~10 products and landed on @zapier's new AI tool because it had key integrations + IT approval.

It also has a feature in beta for building automations from a text prompt, but this didn't work for more complex tasks (like mine).

It was the year of near-daily AI launches...

But what products and trends hit the mainstream, with "real people" as users?

A recap of consumer AI in 2023, by the numbers 👇 January

- ChatGPT became the fastest product to hit 100M MAUs, spawning a new generation of prompt engineers

- TikTok launched AI Portraits, which reached nearly 20M users

- AI-powered VTuber Neuro-sama hit 50k Twitch followers in her first month of streaming

2023 was a big year for AI agents - but 2024 will be even bigger.

My market map + a spreadsheet of the 60 products I'm tracking👇 First - what is an AI agent? (there's debate here 👀)

I define agents as bots that work across systems to EXECUTE tasks for users.

Examples:
- Placing an e-comm order
- Filling/submitting forms
- Migrating data

And more! (ex. taking a DMV test ⬇️)

https://twitter.com/DivGarg9/status/1728854189873549809

Our team @a16z is on the hunt for genAI-native marketplaces, uniquely built for this platform shift.

But where are the biggest existing marketplaces seeing value, and how are they responding?

How Airbnb, DoorDash, Poshmark, Instacart, and eBay are adapting to the AI age 👇 🏠 Airbnb

Per CEO @bchesky, Airbnb is considering many genAI features:

- Guest review summarization
- Identifying amenities from a photo
- Guest / host language translation
- Customer service
- Better search
- AI-powered photo tours (live already!) ⬇️

https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/1722241005297246321

What do marketplaces look like in the age of AI?

Some will grow, some will shrink, and some will disappear. It's a new era for the marketplace model!

My take on who will be impacted - and how 👇 While the marketplace model is evergreen, how transactions happen evolves with every platform shift.

We saw it with web and mobile - and now AI!

The AI shift will (arguably) be the biggest of them all, as it transforms how demand/supply match but also, how supply is made.

Generative AI has spawned thousands of new products.

But outside of ChatGPT, what are everyday consumers using? What's growing, and what has flattened?

We crunched the numbers to find the top 50 consumer web products by monthly visits - here's our learnings ⬇️ 1/ ChatGPT is the 👑, representing 60% of traffic to the ENTIRE list.

But @character_ai is not far behind, with 21% of ChatGPT's traffic.

The rest of the top 10? Bard, @poe_platform, @TheQuillBot, @photoroom_app, @HelloCivitai, @midjourney, @huggingface, @perplexity_ai

There are 5+ dating apps that each make more than $100M in annual revenue.

And yet, there hasn't been a single friend-finding app to reach massive scale 🤔

Why products with a stated goal of "making friends" will (probably!) never work ⬇️ First, there's perceived stigma/adverse selection. If you need an app to make friends, is that a negative signal?

Dating apps overcame this as they provide data points/filters that are hard to get IRL (e.g. who is single)

As adoption spiked, the behavior was further normalized.

TikTok may be building a Spotify killer.

I got an early look at the new streaming app they just launched in five countries.

Here’s why it could be the first real challenger to Spotify’s global dominance ⬇️ First of all - the backdrop.

Spotify’s market share has fallen (36% in 2018 -> 30% in 2022), as geos like China (where they don’t operate) rise in prominence.

On the other hand, TikTok’s music industry impact continues to grow - and they already have the label relationships.

It turns out that plugging 100M users into a copycat product isn't a slam dunk.

One week after launch, DAUs on the ~other app~ are down 40% and average daily time per user dropped 4x.

Why isn't it working? ⬇️

First of all - it's a massive accomplishment to get to 100M active users in just a few days.

It makes the new app technically the fastest growing consumer product of all time.

(Though heavy credit has to be given to IG, which nudged users to download it!)

Underrated stat on @cutiecaryn’s new “AI girlfriend” voice bot:

The $72k in revenue came from just 1,000 beta testers in a week.

This means the average user spent more than an hour chatting with her, at $1/min.

I paid to see how it works 👇 Users join the waitlist for a Telegram group. When admitted, you’re placed in a group chat with admins and other users.

You can ask questions about the AI and eventually activate the bot in a private chat.

Bytedance has a new app that just hit #1 on the U.S. Lifestyle charts (and top 10 overall)!

It's called Lemon8 - and is being described as a TikTok x Instagram x Pinterest hybrid.

Per @SensorTower, the app is seeing ~60k daily downloads. Here's what it is ⬇️ First of all, Lemon8 actually isn't new - just new to the U.S..

The app was launched in 2020 in markets including Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam - and grew to a monthly active user base of ~4M.

Lemon8 hit the U.S. this week, with TikTok ads + creator partnerships fueling growth.

On this year's @a16z Marketplace 100, only two companies were top decile in both growth and GMV...

Peek (@peek) and Whatnot (@Whatnot)!

Growth at scale is tough for marketplaces, as it requires “jumping” to new categories / geos.

Here’s what they did ⬇️ Peek (#14 on the list) allows consumers to book activities + adventures.

They also offer a SaaS platform for providers to manage their businesses, making the platform sticky!

Peek claims they boost revenue an average of 30% for thousands of providers across 12 verticals.

For marketplaces, one of the biggest predictors of demand-side retention is...quality of supply!

Which suppliers you recommend can be the difference between an OK and a fantastic experience.

Here's how the biggest marketplaces rank supply in search results 👇 Airbnb 🏠

-# of bookings, impressions, adds to wishlist
-Guest reviews
-Guest engagement (clicks/contacts from listing)
-Response time
-Reservation acceptance rate
-Price competitiveness vs. nearby inventory
-Wider date availability
-Superhost status

airbnb.com/resources/host…

One of the most common mistakes I see from subscription apps?

Making the free product ~too~ good.

Many founders say they'll change the paywall to optimize conversion later on, but that’s hard to do. Here’s why ⬇️ As the Netflix password sharing debacle shows, it’s tough to ask people to pay for things that were once free.

Moving free features behind a paywall creates resentment from existing users, which hurts retention and WoM growth.

And you’ll likely be flooded with bad reviews 😬

Ever wondered what kids are really doing online?

@qustodio aggregated screen time data from 400k+ kids aged 4-18 - the results are fascinating.

Let’s start with the top apps by daily minutes per user 👇 Roblox dominated screen time across categories, with players engaged for 3 hours per DAY!

Almost 60% of kids in the sample played Roblox, followed by a distant #2 for games in Clash Royale (24%) and #3 in Minecraft (23%).