Great UX unlocks insane user growth for AI companies

Great UX unlocks markets.

Seriously, it blows them wide open.

Good design is good business. Paired with strong engineering, design can turn new technology into products people actually want to use.

Take Google’s NotebookLM, a Gemini-powered RAG tool with a nifty podcast generator which has everyone buzzing, including Andrej Karpathy who created a 10-episode podcast series “Histories of Mysterious” after spending just two hours researching and curating Wikipedia posts.

Here’s the kicker: did you know NotebookLM was available to the public for a whole year before this?

Yet it only captured the public’s imagination once it added its podcast feature, which transformed dense papers and lengthy research docs into a very listenable conversation between two speakers.

This isn’t the first time design has catalyzed AI adoption.

When GPT-3 was released by OpenAI in June 2020, it was a technical milestone but largely flew under the radar. By mid-2021, almost 18 months after its release, the GPT-3 API was powering only around 300 apps.  

It wasn’t until ChatGPT, a chat interface on top of GPT-3,  launched in November 2022 that the public response exploded: 100 million users in two months. For context, TikTok hit that milestone in nine months, and Instagram took over two and a half years. Current estimates put ChatGPT’s userbase today at over 200 million.

This week, OpenaI made more strides in AI UX. They announced a real-time API for voice-to-voice interactions— so developers can create conversational AI that happens instantaneously. This unfolds a whole new UX paradigm. Imagine the possibilities:

• Live Interpretation: Real-time language translation during conversations.
• Voice-Driven Paperwork: Imagine ditching forms entirely—think Turbotax with voice, where navigating taxes becomes a conversation.
• 24/7 Support Lines: Scalable support helplines without downtime; people in need are never put on hold.
• Speech Therapy & Speaking Coach: Interactive voice sessions to improve how you speak, with feedback on nuances and inflections.
• Chief of Staff Agents: Virtual assistants not only taking notes but actively contributing to conversations and handling next steps.
• Idea Brainstormer: A back-and-forth dialogue partner to test ideas, debate, and refine your thoughts in real time.

And then there’s Canvas, a new interface for working with ChatGPT beyond simple chat-based conversations.

Canvas opens in a separate window, allowing collaborative project work—whether writing or coding—alongside the AI. It’s a live workspace where you can refine ideas together, almost like having a real-time editor to iterate code or content side by side.  This new format makes collaboration between model and human more seamless than ever.

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