Shopify's CEO demands product teams use AI - but is it making us lazy?
Plus: How to differentiate AI products, the evolution of unit economics, Stanford University AI Report
Hi product people 👋, a warm welcome to the 210+ new subscribers who joined us since last week!
Coming up in today’s briefing, Google unveils how it plans to add agentic workflows to Workspace tools including Sheets, Docs and more, why conversational interfaces may not always be the best approach for AI features and Shopify’s CEO tells staff that all new product prototypes must start with AI. But is this making us lazy?
Plus, how AI agents are rewriting the SaaS pricing playbook, an alternative to Google Analytics that introduces a smart new UX pattern and Instagram finally decides to fix one of its most unloved features.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
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Key reads and resources for product teams
New from the Department of Product Substack this week:
Deep - Payment Journey UX Explored
In this Deep dive, we dig deeper into the UX of payment journeys across some of the world’s leading tech companies including OpenAI, Miro, Midjourney, Adobe, DuoLingo and more to understand how exactly they take payments. This 2025 set includes an entirely new crop of companies vs the ones we looked at last year. We’ll look at both the full end to end payment journey and the finer details of the types of payments on offer. (Department of Product)
Strategy - How can AI products differentiate?
It's easy to say what tech companies want from AI, but much harder to talk about the product strategy - they're all pretty much the same. "Just build a better model!" Where does that go? Can they differentiate? What would it mean to differentiate a product that can do 'everything' - what would different everythings be? Benedict Evans and Toni Cowan-Brown discuss. (Benedict Evans Podcast)
UX - The case against conversational interfaces
Conversational interfaces are a bit of a meme. Every couple of years a shiny new AI development emerges and people in tech go “This is it! The next computing paradigm is here! We’ll only use natural language going forward!”. But then nothing actually changes and we continue using computers the way we always have, until the debate resurfaces a few years later. Linear’s product designer shares his thoughts on this new trend. (Julian, Product Design at Linear)
Monetization - How AI Agents are rewriting the SaaS unit economics playbook
If AI agents lower acquisition costs by qualifying and converting leads automatically, CAC payback periods could shorten. If those same agents boost retention through smarter onboarding and personalized support, LTV may rise. (Crunchbase)
Process - Why companies don’t fix bugs
Over eight years, developers and product managers come and go. The person who originally filed the ticket? Long gone. The person who understood the issue? Moved on to another project. Institutional memory fades, and the ticket becomes a relic of the past. Even if the problem is still very much alive. (Ibrahim Diallo)
Opinion - Demand for software engineers will grow, not shrink
Despite a growing sense of doom and gloom in the field, Okta CEO Todd McKinnon isn't buying the idea that software engineers are on their way out. (Business Insider)
New product features and innovation this week
AI coding startup Devin has unveiled a Linear integration that can work through your entire product backlog. The integration knows your codebase and will comment on each ticket in your backlog in a few minutes with: a summary of the current code, an implementation plan and any edge cases or questions that might need your attention. Some product teams have already started assigning it work. Watch it in action here.
Google Workspace is getting a new feature called Workspace Flows - designed to automate multi-step processes like updating spreadsheets. “Simply describe what you need in plain language, and Workspace Flows will design and build sophisticated, logic-driven flows,” Yulie Kwon Kim, VP of product for Google Workspace, wrote in a blog post. Google Sheets will also get another new feature set to arrive later this year called “Help me analyze,” will provide guidance, spotlight trends, and help create interactive charts. It all looks very impressive.
Meanwhile…
Microsoft hosted a major Copilot event which unveiled a bunch of new features. This included Microsoft’s own version of Deep Research and a Notebook-LM style podcast generation feature. Perhaps the most noteworthy, though, was Copilot’s new browser agent called Copilot Actions that can perform actions on behalf of users. Some of the Actions included multi-step workflows that use some of Microsoft’s own AI Agents including Project Manager agent and Facilitator Agent for meetings.
The company has also started testing a new feature called “Copilot Vision” that will allow the assistant to see what you see on your desktop. Microsoft says this could be used for helping users navigate through products they have difficulty understanding. Something to bear in mind for potential product onboarding use cases.
In other news…
OpenAI is reported to be exploring a purchase of the hardware company Jony Ive and Sam Altman own. The new device is said to resemble a “screenless phone”.
Amazon’s new “Buy for Me” button allows users to use their Amazon Shopping app to purchase items from third party websites on their behalf using AI agents. Third party sellers will be happy to generate the additional revenues, but is eroding a direct relationship with their users a price worth paying?
Instagram is finally fixing one of its most unloved features: Search. Despite research showing that 45% of Gen Zers are more likely to use social media for searches. Instagram head Adam Mosseri admitted that “actually searching for some type of content — it’s not very good on Instagram”.
Search habits are changing
Hackernews users shared their own experiences of how they use search vs AI tools today. Here’s some of the key themes:
Tools you can use
Metabase - An easy to use alternative to Google Analytics. Pull threads in your data without even asking a question.
Glasp - turn your highlights from the web, books, notes and anywhere into an AI clone.
Sherlock - stop candidates cheating in remote interviews.
📈 Product data and trends to stay ahead
Using AI tools like ChatGPT at work is making us lazy thanks to “cognitive offloading”. A new study by Microsoft found that those with more confidence in generative AI engaged in less critical thinking when using it.
Participants were assessed across 6 core areas: Knowledge, Comprehension, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. In all areas, use of AI was perceived to reduce the effort required, but using AI in some use cases like software engineering and product development actually required more effort as participants needed to double check output before relying upon it.
But one person who is very keen on the use of AI in the workplace is Shopify’s CEO. He has told staff that AI must be part of the product development prototyping phase and that all teams must ask themselves the question “what would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team?” None of this is particularly surprising for folks who have been keeping up to date with the transformational effects of AI but it is still stark to see a major CEO put it in these terms.
Character.AI receives 20,000 queries per second - around a fifth of the estimated search volume served by Google. AI companions represent the final stage of digital addiction, says MIT.
Users are becoming more optimistic about the use of AI in products and services. In Countries like China (83%), Indonesia (80%), and Thailand (77%), strong majorities see AI products and services as more beneficial than harmful. In contrast, optimism remains far lower in places like Canada (40%), the United States (39%), and the Netherlands (36%). But, sentiment is generally becoming more optimistic over time with a+4% shift in the US and +8% shift towards more positive attitudes vs 2022. Full 2025 Stanford University AI Index Report.
Just 34% of US adults now support a TikTok ban in the US - down from 50% in March 2023.
Other product news in brief
🫡Google is replacing the head of its AI consumer apps, Sissie Hsiao
🔥Europe’s privacy legislation GDPR is set to be simplified in an effort to reduce regulatory burdens on tech companies - and product teams.
👋Deel’s comms chief is leaving the company.
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Thanks for the great write-up and for featuring Glasp! 🙌 We're excited to see tools that help people learn, reflect, and grow being part of the conversation. Appreciate the shoutout! 🚀
Thank you for featuring Glasp!