x.ai’s Quest to Schedule 10 Billion Meetings

Dennis and Jenna discuss the team’s efforts bringing x.ai’s first public product to life, Amy’s inherent virality, and the future of vertical A.I. 

Insights from Dennis

On x.ai’s Flagship Product: 

• “Launching our Professional edition provides clarity for the team. You can hide behind a closed beta for too long and tell yourself that everything is great. There is a massive difference in making a customer happy on a free, closed beta and then having to persuade someone to give you $39. People will be brutally honest when they have given you money. They want value for what they’re paying for.”
• “We spoke to 5,000 beta customers before we launched. It wasn’t just a few of us flipping the switch in a dark room.  We didn’t want to spend the last three years building Amy and then get to this point and fumble. We knew we had to get it right.“

On Choosing the Right Price:

• “People won’t collectively agree on price but they have to agree on value.  It’s not about the exact dollar amount. People either see value in your product or they don’t.” 
• “We started with a set of truths that wouldn’t change.  We needed to pick a price where people think ‘This is a piece of software I can buy and gain value from.’ We also wanted a price that’s fair for companies to reimburse. It should be an obvious decision for organizations to equip every team member with Amy and Andrew.”

On the Future of Vertical A.I.: 

• “Today, it seems almost risky to only have your documents on your computer. Everybody saves their files to the cloud. That’s why Dropbox has 500 million users. It took them eight years. If we’re equally successful, in eight years, using an A.I. agent to schedule your meetings will be very normal.”
• “People meet Amy and Andrew all the time. When you set up a meeting with Amy, you expose your friend to a great experience, and they think ‘Why does she have an assistant and I don’t? I should sign up.’ Amy is very viral in herself. It’s so simple that anyone can talk about it.”
• “I have no doubt that we will see vertical A.I agents arrive and become very clever in other verticals. There are so many fundamental areas that are ripe for disruption.”