As we enter the AI era, we predict the benefits to consumers will be as profound as the technology is magical.
It’s impossible to talk about new technology without talking about human flourishing — every new technology from the plow to the microchip has typically been followed by a period of newfound wealth for consumers in the form of cheaper goods, improved productivity, and longer, healthier lives. In many ways, the most financially average person in our modern society experiences daily luxuries that history’s Pharaohs and Caesars could not imagine: instant communication, broadcast television, global travel, antibiotics.
As we enter the AI era, we predict the benefits to consumers will be as profound as the technology is magical; what indeed are the implications for software that can write poetry, listen emphatically, compose music, or provide dating advice?
In a word, we predict an Era of Abundance — consumers’ lives will be enriched through new channels for creativity and self expression, new paths to self discovery and belonging, and new ways to do the most meaningful work of their lives.
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What happens when AI doesn’t just generate content, but embodies it? I tested over 20 AI avatar products to understand what’s working and what's next.
Krea is building an interface for creative professionals and enthusiasts to use AI tools. The product combines powerful primitives with the most cutting-edge models, acting as a copilot that multiplies human creativity.
Cher's digital closet was just the beginning. Online shopping is becoming intelligent, predictive, and visually intuitive.
This month, a16z’s Consumer team released the fourth edition of the GenAI 100 — a data-driven ranking of the top 50 AI-first web products and mobile apps, based on unique monthly visits and active users.
AI voice technology has been around for years — think Siri or Alexa — but the magic has been missing. That’s changing, and quickly!
We unpacked the unconventional tactics in Deel's playbook to help guide the business strategy and culture of other startups.
Which AI apps are people actively using? What’s actually making money, beyond being popular? We analyzed the data.
What products are builders using to make websites and web apps with AI? A deep dive into how these products work, their limitations, and the features on the horizon.
Voice is one of the most powerful unlocks for AI application companies. As models improve, AI voice will become the wedge, not the product.
Today, we’re proud to announce we’ve led the Series A for Slingshot, the world’s first foundation model for psychology. This brings the total capital raised for the company to $40 million.
An end-to-end design platform built specifically for retail product design. With Raspberry AI, designers can gather trend research, survey synthetic customer groups to product-test ideas, and generate real-world assets in seconds.
Email, a technology from 1971, is powering one of today’s most disruptive media platforms.
The a16z consumer team tapped a grab bag of fellow early-adopters and AI enthusiasts to share their favorite products from a weird and wonderful year.
WaveForms AI is training an end-to-end audio language model with the goal of solving the speech Turing test — an AI that feels like talking to a human.
An external "AI brain." Big swings in biopharma. Infinite games. A nuclear resurgence. "Faceless" creators. Google search challengers. Battlefield AI. We asked 50 a16z partners to preview one big idea that will spur innovation in 2025.
AI voice assistants for the freight industry. Customers are using Happyrobot for both inbound and outbound calls, including load updates, check calls, and carrier sales negotiations.
[untitled] is building the new operating system for musicians. Users can upload, organize, and even edit their music on mobile with AI-powered features.
I’ve been using ChatGPT like a daily journal to translate my innermost thoughts and feelings into a readily understandable format. I've been blown away by the results.
Last week was another big week in technology.
As the market-leading AI scribe for veterinarians, Scribenote automates burdensome documentation requirements.
This week in consumer tech: Apple’s big reveals, OpenAI’s multi-step reasoning, and Adobe Firefly’s video model.
We crunched the data to find out: Which gen AI apps are people actually using? And which are they returning to, versus dabbling and dropping?
Once criticized for lacking ambition, French founders are now aiming to create the world’s largest companies. With a thriving ecosystem attracting talent from across Europe and the US, France is becoming a major player o...
On June 27th, the a16z team headed to New York City for the first-ever AI Artist Retreat at their office. This event brought together the builders behind some of the most popular AI creative tools, along with 16 artists,...
Artists are at the forefront of the AI platform shift. As new high fidelity tools emerge along the creative stack, technology is extending the impact of filmmakers, designers, animators, illustrators, photographers, and multimedia artists.
Less than two years since the breakthrough of text-based AI, we now see incredible developments in multimodal AI models and their impact on millions of users.
Now is the time to reinvent the phone call. Thanks to gen AI, humans will spend time on the phone only when a call has value to them.
The stakes are high. The opportunities are profound. From the creation of new medicines to bolstering national defense, this is our vision for the AI-enabled future.
There’s likely a whole category of non-AI companies and products that can FINALLY exist *because of the productivity gains of AI.*
AI-native consumer products should consider user retention a core metric, and the following boosters can help founders build it.
Thousands of new AI-native companies are vying for attention. We crunched the data to find out: Which generative AI products are people actually using?
We predict an Era of Abundance — lives will be enriched through new channels for creativity, along with new paths to self discovery and belonging.
2023 was a breakout year for AI video. At the start of the year, no public text-to-video models existed, and there's a lot to come.
Generative AI offers founders an opportunity to completely reinvent workflows — and will spawn a new cohort of fully AI-native companies.
Every new platform changes how and where transactions happen. Now, we believe gen AI will be the latest revolution in marketplaces.
Smart energy grids. Voice-first companion apps. Programmable medicines. AI tools for kids. We asked over 40 partners across a16z to preview one big idea they believe will drive innovation in the coming year.
In April, the first viral AI cover dropped. More innovation in music and generative AI is coming, and here's what it might look like.
As CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati oversaw the development and release of GPT-4 and ChatGPT. Here she tells Martin Casado the story behind the release of ChatGPT—and what it tells us about the future of AI and human-machine interactions.
Jeff Jordan reminisces about his decision to back the start-up Instacart, as the grocery giant prepares to go public.
To see how people are interacting with generative AI, we used data to rank the top 50 GenAI web products by monthly visits.
Thanks to generative AI, the much-discussed topic of “self-driving money” finally has a chance to achieve its potential.
Chatbots have been around for decades, but this time is different. Today’s bots are making inroads into our social lives.
Captions helps creators quickly and easily script, record, and edit video content with a focus on short-form videos.
In a world of retweets, upvotes, and right swipes, studies show that many of us still feel lonely. Thanks to generative AI, we potentially have a new solution: companion chatbots.
Field Notes is a video podcast series on consumer tech by a16z. Connie Chan talks to former Vogue publisher Susan Plagemann of WME Fashion about editorial and social strategy.
"When we reviewed their initial ramp-up plan, our jaws dropped."
Field Notes is a new video podcast series on consumer tech. Host Connie Chan and Poshmark cofounder Tracy Sun talk live-shopping, resale, and AI.
Episode Transcript
Episode Transcript
In this episode, host Connie Chan talks to Deb Liu, the CEO of Ancestry and the former VP of App Commerce at Meta. The conversation covers all things marketplaces: what metrics to focus on, how to balance growth and focus, and how to turn user behavior into business strategy.
General Partner Connie Chan on how leading brands are using AI and other technology to combine the serendipitous discovery of offline shopping with the infinite options of online shopping.
Travel is a trillion-dollar industry stuck in the past. The last major breakthrough came in the 1990s, with the emergence of online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com and Expedia to aggregate inventory. Unless you h...
When a new social app starts to "work," it feels like magic, but often looks like a black box.
The a16z Marketplace 100 stacks up the largest consumer-facing marketplace startups and private companies. In this, our fourth annual ranking, the data revealed some of the most interesting takeaways to date.
If leveraged well, AI has the potential to greatly enhance students’ abilities to think critically and expand their soft skills.
a16z’s Consumer team spends a lot of time testing (and playing with) the latest AI-native tools. Here you’ll find some of their favorite recent demos, trends, tutorials, and works of AI art.
@stuffyokodraws
Mar 30
GPT-4o helped me live a childhood dream: becoming part of the stories I grew up with
I asked it to insert me into the cartoons and anime I loved as a kid—and the results are wild
Here are some of my favorites + the prompts I used:
@stuffyokodraws
Mar 30
@stuffyokodraws
Mar 28
Here I present to you the @a16z stickers:
@stuffyokodraws
Mar 28
@omooretweets
Mar 27
Every podcast needs to be Ghibli going forward.
@omooretweets
Mar 27
@venturetwins
Mar 26
I’m an investor by day, but I genuinely love playing with AI creative tools.
They’ve made it possible for me to tell the stories that have always floated around my brain.
Honored to be in the sizzle reel for Veo 2, an incredible model – watch for my skateboarding clip!
@venturetwins
Mar 26
@venturetwins
Mar 20
Big news, I have successfully replaced myself with AI
@venturetwins
Mar 20
@venturetwins
Mar 11
Here is me talking to my AI avatar on Zoom.
I recorded a clip of myself talking, and used it to make an interactive avatar who can join meetings.
Her French accent isn’t great, but she takes the feedback like a champ…
@venturetwins
Mar 11
@omooretweets
Mar 03
The best AI voice apps I’ve seen (ex. @sesame) embody the idea that AI can be “more human than humans”
Once you nail inflections, pauses, tonality, etc. it’s striking to have a conversational partner who is 100% engaged
..and yet, says things that are truly surprising!
@omooretweets
Mar 03
@venturetwins
Feb 27
Every day, we’re getting more control over AI video generation.
This is the new @pika_labs frames feature – each video has the same start and end frame, but a different text prompt to guide it.
I’ve been doing this all morning with images I pull from @krea_ai‘s style gallery!
@venturetwins
Feb 27
@venturetwins
Feb 24
I don’t see how AI inpainting doesn’t take over most green screen work.
The first video is a generated clip from Veo 2 (but you can easily imagine it filmed in front of a green screen).
The other videos are all background swaps with @pika_labs – from a single text prompt
@venturetwins
Feb 24
@venturetwins
Feb 14
It’s gotten so easy to make your own podcasts:
1) Ask Deep Research to dive into a topic and create a casual, engaging script
2) Convert to audio on @elevenlabsio (I use the “Lydia” voice)
You get 30 min on your niche interests! Here’s the intro to one of mine:
@venturetwins
Feb 14
@venturetwins
Feb 09
New workflow: make custom fonts with AI ✨
You can texture any font using @Adobe Firefly AI’s “composition” and “style” references.
Watch this letter turn into legos, chicken nuggets, clouds, and more. How to do it
@venturetwins
Feb 09
@venturetwins
Feb 07
Update on building Web apps with AI:
I made a site that suggests your next read based on your favorite childhood books.
It also lets you log in to save and rate books.
As a non-coder, I’m proud it has working @OpenAI and @googlecloud integrations! Here’s how I did it
@venturetwins
Feb 07
@venturetwins
Feb 05
I’m completely non-technical (never coded).
But I just built a Web app from my phone by chatting with an AI agent on @Replit.
It handles UI, database, debugging, deployment…
Now I have a tracker for to answer life’s most important question: “Has the dog been fed?”
@venturetwins
Feb 05
@omooretweets
Feb 01
Google can now make phone calls on your behalf (with AI!)
Two features in free beta testing:
– “Chat with a live rep” – navigates phone trees and connects you to a human
– Availability check – calls local businesses to get availability/ pricing (ex. for a manicure)
@omooretweets
Feb 01
@venturetwins
Jan 23
This is a great launch for AI image generation!
I uploaded four photos of myself to @krea_ai and got a model that generates real-time images of me.
Adjust the prompt and you’ll immediately see a change – watch me travel around the world
@venturetwins
Jan 23
@venturetwins
Jan 17
What’s happening in consumer AI?
I spend all day trying new apps and tools – and making tutorials on how to use them.
Here are five of my favorites from this week
@venturetwins
Jan 17
@venturetwins
Jan 16
Found a crazy app where you livestream as an influencer to an audience of bots
They listen to you and then comment with questions, reactions, and criticism.
You know it’s fake, but…it feels real when you’re live!
@venturetwins
Jan 16
@venturetwins
Jan 14
Sketch-to-3D asset is cool (and now very fast)
@venturetwins
Jan 14
@venturetwins
Jan 14
We’re finally getting virtual try-on.
This is from a new app called Doji – upload eight selfies and two full-body pics, and it creates a model of you.
You can then try items preloaded in the app or ones you upload from a link
@venturetwins
Jan 14
@venturetwins
Dec 23
People are sleeping on video-to-video to make cool clips.
Put the first video through @runwayml with the prompt: “man running through pirate ship”
You get a transformation that preserves the movement with a new character and setting!
@venturetwins
Dec 23
@venturetwins
Dec 18
How far has AI video come this year?
I ran a bunch of prompts on SOTA models last December and today.
5 head-to-head comparisons (left is ’23, right is ’24)
@venturetwins
Dec 18
@venturetwins
Nov 21
@krea_ai You can also click to push the image to video, also on @krea_ai.
This was the first try using @LumaLabsAI!
@venturetwins
Nov 21
@omooretweets
Nov 14
Your next job interview may be with an AI.
Companies spend a ton of time and $ on interviews – often with low ROI. And, candidates suffer through long and painful processes.
New @a16z thesis from me + @seema_amble…AI voice interviewers👇
@omooretweets
Nov 14
@omooretweets
Nov 10
Sunday morning cartoons, starring @a16z consumer!
In the style of the OG builders: Phineas & Ferb 💪
See if you can identify each character…
(made with @krea_ai, @ideogram_ai, @runwayml)
@omooretweets
Nov 10
@omooretweets
Nov 09
Put myself in a film noir with @krea_ai‘s new Train feature 📽️
It’s now dead simple to spin up LoRAs and combine different characters, objects, and styles.
This whole process took <10 min!
@omooretweets
Nov 09
@venturetwins
Nov 07
🚨 New @a16z investment thesis: AI x parenting
Raising kids is one of our most challenging and important jobs.
Every parent needs support sometimes – but many can’t access it because it’s too inexpensive or inaccessible.
AI changes this. What we’re seeing 👇
@venturetwins
Nov 07
@venturetwins
Nov 05
Everyone is talking about @recraftai‘s image model, Red Panda – but the editing tools are underhyped.
There’s a “frames” feature to combine images (generated or uploaded) and text…and then re-render a cohesive design or change style.
Here’s me in season 5 of Succession ⬇️
@venturetwins
Nov 05
@venturetwins
Nov 03
Video style transfer test!
I love video stylization, but often find it hard to get a good result for any kind of complex motion.
I took videos from a recent trip and tested three tools (@runwayml, @DomoAI_, @GoEnhance) on four styles.
The results + takeaways:
@venturetwins
Nov 03
@venturetwins
Oct 30
My trip down the rabbit hole in mixed reality…
It’s actually incredibly hard to make – and highlights an interesting challenge in AI image generation.
@venturetwins
Oct 30
@venturetwins
Oct 01
Hey guys – big news, turns out I’ve been cake this whole time
@venturetwins
Oct 01
@omooretweets
Sep 28
I uploaded 200 pages of raw court documents to NotebookLM.
It created a true crime podcast that is better than 90% of what’s out there now…
And ends with the hosts debating the ethics of the genre 🤯
@omooretweets
Sep 28
@venturetwins
Sep 15
Spent the last day playing around with @runwayml‘s new video-to-video tool It’s pretty cool on it’s own and in combination with other tools.
The first clip here is @ViggleAI, the second is @getcartwheel, and the last two are my camera roll.
@venturetwins
Sep 15
From video generators to virtual companions, these are the most popular gen AI web products and apps.
We’re investors focused on the products and services that will be game-changers for the consumer experience across the world. We believe technology isn’t only for enhancing business, it’s about advancing human progress.
