Something Big in AI, UX Consulting, Airbnb, OpenClaw, and Report Cards
Your Weekly Review of News in Technology, UX and AI
Here’s the latest news, resources, and use cases from the world of product, UX, AI and technology. Let’s go:
📊 AI in Healthcare
💸 Something big
👩💻 AI first operators
🤖 UX consulting
🎛️ Airbnb
🤼♂️ OpenClaw
👥 Report cards
Podcast
Harnessing AI in Healthcare: Insights from RJ Kedziora
In this episode of Product by Design, Kyle Evans interviews RJ Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda, a company specializing in custom software and data analysis for healthcare. We discuss RJ’s journey in technology and entrepreneurship, the importance of energy management over time management, and the role of AI in healthcare. RJ shares insights into the challenges and future of AI applications, the need for ethical considerations, and the potential for personalized healthcare solutions. He also offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make a difference in the industry.
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News and Useful Reads
Something big is happening in AI — and most people will be blindsided
I have mixed feelings about this article. I agree AI is coming faster than most of us are prepared for. But I think it’s easy to overestimate the broad impact when you’re too close to it. So I understand why tech CEOs think the effects are imminent without understanding the time it takes to change large organizations and entrenched cultures. Coding and technology is an easy jump for AI. But is everything? Conversely, the disruption is coming, and many, if not most, of us aren’t ready.
The experience that tech workers have had over the past year, of watching AI go from “helpful tool” to “does my job better than I do”, is the experience everyone else is about to have. Law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service. Not in 10 years. The people building these systems say one to five years. Some say less.
The AI-First Operator Is the New Product Manager
Product management is changing, as we discuss frequently here. But I believe the need for good product managers will increase significantly as the time to go from idea to product decreases rapidly.
“Product Managers and Leads with experience will be the most in-demand resource in the coming years. Especially if they know how to leverage AI.”
What UX Consulting Clients Expect in the Age of AI
AI is going to take over many parts of technology. But I’m still skeptical that it will take over good judgement.
AI hasn’t fundamentally changed why organizations hire UX consultants. Clients aren’t looking for speculative AI concepts or flashy demos. They’re seeking to partner with experienced UX experts who can help them solve their problems.
Airbnb says a third of its customer support is now handled by AI in the US and Canada
If you work in any type of customer support, you know AI is quickly taking over more and more of it.
Airbnb says its custom-built AI agent is now handling roughly a third of its customer support issues in North America, and it’s preparing to roll out the feature globally. If successful, the company believes that in a year’s time, more than 30% of its total customer support tickets will be handled by AI voice and chat in all the languages where it also employs a human customer service agent.
I Loved My OpenClaw AI Agent—Until It Turned on Me
If you’re paying attention to recent news, OpenClaw is all the rage. You can set it up on a Mac Mini and create your own personal agent. But it seems to come with many potential risks.
For brave (or perhaps reckless) early adopters, OpenClaw seems like a legitimate glimpse of the future. But any sense of wonder is accompanied by a dollop of terror as the AI agent romps through emails and file systems, wields a credit card, and occasionally even turns on its human user (although in my case, this about-face was entirely my fault).
Other Interesting Finds
Why There’s No ‘E’ on Report Cards
Although numerical grading was the most popular method of assessing students from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, another system emerged and evolved alongside it: letter grades.