YouTube's vision for 2025, Figma's new API and Google's secret AI mode
Plus: A new tool to talk to products at work, How Intercom restructured its information architecture and OpenAI's valuation in context
Hi product people 👋,
This week, YouTube’s CEO unveiled his vision for 2025 in his annual letter including new AI features that leverage Google’s impressive Veo 2 video generation models, age verification checks and more. We take a look at the relevant pieces worth knowing for product teams.
Plus, a new report from Anthropic on the economic impact of AI, a practical new API from Figma that’s ideal for teams who struggle with design component adoption and a secret new hardware product from Apple.
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 - Emotion-led UX explored
Is emotion the new competitive moat for software products? This is the argument that was recently made by an exec at Figma who argued that “emotional resonance, not features, is the new competitive moat for software.” In this Deep dive, we’ll take a look at how some of the world’s leading companies are infusing emotion-driven UX into their products. 30+ emotion-led features and UX from leading companies including Apple, ChatGPT, Spotify, YouTube, DuoLingo, Uber and more - all categorized by emotional impact.
More from the Knowledge Series:
Design case study - How Intercom restructured is information architecture
Restructuring IA is like trying to rebuild a busy train station without stopping the trains. You need to map out the flow of people, understand their needs, and remove obstacles – all without breaking what’s already working. (Intercom Design blog)
Management - How to keep tabs on your remote workforce
The research on the utility of these monitoring tools has been mixed. This study finds that “interactional monitoring,” characterized by regular, discussion-based check-ins, can encourage innovation while passive “observational monitoring,” often powered by technological surveillance, makes employees less likely to speak up. This is particularly true of workers in complex jobs like software engineering, product design, or strategy consulting. (Harvard Business Review)
Leadership - Storytelling lessons you can learn from Steve Jobs
Why does this thing need to exist? Why does it matter? Why will people need it? Why will they love it? Every product should have a story, a narrative that explains why it needs to exist and how it will solve your customer’s problems. A good product story has three elements... (Apple’s Tony Fadell)
Report - The Anthropic Economic Index
New research from Anthropic provides insights into AI's role in today's workplace. Analysis of millions of real-world AI interactions reveals that 36% of occupations now use AI for at least a quarter of their tasks, with adoption highest among mid-to-high wage professionals like programmers and technical writers. The data shows AI primarily augments human work (57%) rather than automates it (43%), suggesting a pattern of integration rather than replacement across the workforce. (Anthropic Research)
Interview - The future of AI Agents at work
Bret Taylor, co-founder of Sierra and chairman of OpenAI, discusses what AI agents can do today, the future of conversational AI and how the business model for AI agents could evolve. (Wall Street Journal)
New product features and innovation this week
YouTube’s CEO published his annual letter this week. In his letter, he confirmed that TV has surpassed mobile and is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the US. After rolling out audio dubbing features, more than 40% of the total watch time of these videos now comes from viewers choosing to listen in a dubbed language.
On the AI front, YouTube is expanding Dream Screen (which generates video backgrounds) and Dream Track (for instrumental soundtracks) for Shorts, with plans to integrate Google’s impressive Veo 2 video generation models soon. He also confirmed a major focus on practical AI tools that help with everyday creator tasks like generating video ideas, titles, and thumbnails, as well as a new AI-powered age estimation technology that can distinguish between younger viewers and adults.
Apple has released a new research paper which could lay the groundwork for a brand new piece of hardware - inspired by an old friend.
Meanwhile…
As products shift towards usage-based pricing models for AI features, Stripe has released a new feature to support the shift. This week, they announced the launch of credits for usage based billing which allows SaaS companies to offer free credits during trial periods.
Microsoft Teams may be getting its own “Storyline” feed. Not everyone is happy.
Google employees are reported to be testing out a new version of search called “AI Mode”. A leaked internal email suggests that the new mode will be a form of intelligent search embedded within Google Search that allows users to ask more “open-ended” and “exploratory” questions. From the leaked screenshots it looks a lot like the standard Gemini interface but built directly into search. This approach makes a lot more sense than sticking to Overviews only but if rolled out to everyone, marks a massive shift in how search works.
Adobe has revealed its first Firefly AI video generator, which they say comes with “no risk of IP infringement”.
In other news…
Figma has launched its Library Analytics API out of beta. If you’ve not heard of it before, the API is a super handy way for product design teams to understand component usage across the entire org. Watch it in action here.
Using the API, product teams can do things like:
Build component adoption dashboards
Identify under-used components across different departments
Explore subtle differences in color, typography and inconsistencies in UX across teams
Create alerts when component usage drops below specific thresholds
It’s a fine, practical example of an API product as a painkiller.
How people are using AI text to web app products
Tools you can use
Softr - build powerful custom apps for your business - without code. Examples include CRMs, client portals and employee directories.
Tana - a personal note taking app that can also be used for product roadmaps, sprint boards, calendars and more.
Concierge - talk to the apps you use every day like Jira, Slack, Notion and more e.g. Create a Jira ticket for the new Stripe billing process.
📈 Product data and trends to stay informed
Elon Musk has reportedly made a $97bn bid for the nonprofit part of OpenAI which could complicate plans to convert it into a for-profit. The reported overall valuation of OpenAI in its latest funding rounds is an estimated $340 billion. If it does manage to get funded at that valuation, here’s how that compares to other leading tech companies:
GUI Agents still struggle with user intent understanding, achieving only 51.1% accuracy on unseen websites. Survey on AI agents.
Reddit’s daily active users grew 39% from a year earlier to an average of 101.7 million for the fourth quarter. But, this was below market estimates of 103.1 million and Reddit says Google’s algorithm changes was partly to blame for this which negatively impacted traffic. Machine learning translation drove 40-50% of international user growth in Q4 and their CEO teased an expanded version of its AI-powered search tool, Reddit Answers, which is coming soon. Read the earnings deck.
LinkedIn is a $16bn business - generating more revenue than the New York Times, Docusign and Zoom combined. 40% of subscribers have used AI features to improve their profiles.
AI is more empathetic than humans, according to a US insurance company that uses custom-tuned OpenAI models to power its customer service emails. 50,000 emails are sent out a day to people who have claims or are trying to negotiate a settlement - and almost all of them are written by AI. Customer feedback is positive, with users liking the fact that the emails are “less accusatory and jargony and more empathetic”. Something to bear in mind if you’re currently exploring options for transactional or customer service emails.
Other product news in brief
🥽Apple is delaying the next release of AR products to avoid a Vision Pro-style flop.
🇫🇷Anthropic’s CEO called the Paris AI Action Summit a “missed opportunity”.
🤫OpenAI’s former CTO has reportedly recruited co-founder John Schulman to join her secretive new company.
✂️Meta is cutting 5% of its workforce.
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