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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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.
We’ve entered the age of generative AI. When new technology captures consumer attention so quickly, it begs the question: Is there real value here?
Temu is one of the most downloaded ecommerce apps in the US. Learn the elements of this social shopping app’s retail model and why it’s winning the moment.
A Super App is a multiuse application that can perform the functions of many programs in one. Learn about current examples of Super Apps.
Online platforms are passionately hoping that paid membership models may be a new answer to existing advertising revenue ceilings. After all, at $3-5 per member a month, the revenue is sure to add up — or does it?
Today’s digital workplace moves faster than at any point in history. We can communicate and collaborate in real-time—and around the world—across text, voice, video, and documents. We can share massive files with a URL an...
To celebrate the LA community and the city's growth, A16Z recently hosted Time to Build Los Angeles, an event where we invited LA-based investors, founders, and operators from across a diverse range of industries to talk...
It’s no secret today’s young people prefer searching for recommendations on video apps over text-based search engines. Even the executives at Google know this. SVP Prabhakar Raghavan recently said that according to the c...
As we enter the third school year of the Covid era, a disturbing new normal is settling over the country. Students continue to be chronically absent; nearly 50,000 Los Angeles public school students failed to show up on...
If you’ve run a high-growth company, you know that office space decisions are a nightmare. You are forced to anchor your growth assumption in cement--literally--for a typical lease term of seven years.
It’s time for your startup to fundraise. You prepare a deck, practice your pitch, and start reaching out to investors. If a first meeting goes well, it often ends with a request to share your “data room.” But what is a d...
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.
@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
@omooretweets
Sep 15
On this week’s @a16z podcast, @venturetwins and I reviewed the new AI features coming in iOS 18
Including the fact that you can now FINALLY record and transcribe calls
Plus extra smart photo search, what we hope to see from Siri, and more
@omooretweets
Sep 15
@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
@venturetwins
Sep 08
Drag to move a face
Using the new @reshotAI product from @alexcarliera.
@venturetwins
Sep 08
@venturetwins
Sep 01
Virtual try-on with AI
These are real clothes that I’m applying by inpainting from a reference image.
It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good – on the beta version of @Photoshop
@venturetwins
Sep 01
@omooretweets
Aug 28
New AI genre – bring famous art subjects into the modern day
Presenting…American Gothic
@omooretweets
Aug 28
@venturetwins
Aug 27
Turning myself into a superhero ✨
This is such a simple but fun workflow: animate a photo of yourself with @ViggleAI and use @DomoAI_ to stylize.
@venturetwins
Aug 27
@omooretweets
Aug 26
I love Goodreads as a tracking app, but haven’t found it to be great at recommendations.
So I built myself a personalized AI reading engine, powered by Claude + my historical ratings.
It re-ranked my entire 500+ “to-read” list based on learnings from what I like 👇
@omooretweets
Aug 26
@omooretweets
Aug 26
Excited to announce our investment in @ViggleAI…
And my own accomplishment of becoming an Olympic pole vaulter (Raygun template next, please 🙏)
@omooretweets
Aug 26
@venturetwins
Aug 26
Announcing our investment in @ViggleAI!
Viggle makes it incredibly easy to put characters in videos or make them move.
Since launch in March, millions have used Viggle to make memes, dancing videos, acting clips – and more.
(see me, CEO Hang, and @kirbyman01 ⬇️)
@venturetwins
Aug 26
@stuffyokodraws
Aug 21
Used @ideogram_ai‘s 2.0 model to animate @a16z‘s logo yesterday: Ideogram is re-making the new workflow for every designer.
– Image & concepts @ideogram_ai
– Motion @LumaLabsAI @runwayml
– Sound effect @elevenlabsio
– Music @udiomusic
SOUND ON 🔊
@stuffyokodraws
Aug 21
@venturetwins
Aug 20
New tutorial: running multiple Flux LoRAs at once.
This is useful if you want to put multiple people in an image OR combine a person with a style.
These were made using my LoRA + a style LoRA on @replicate, instructions 👇
@venturetwins
Aug 20
@venturetwins
Aug 17
We’ve officially crossed the chasm on AI photos.
These would easily fool my friends & family members.
Generated in minutes on @replicate’s LoRA trainer for Flux (@bfl_ml).
@venturetwins
Aug 17
@omooretweets
Aug 13
I built an AI voice agent that called the DMV to schedule an appointment for me!
….and you can too. It took <30 minutes and two tools.
(And, it was incredibly satisfying to hear my AI deal with the DMV’s AI instead of sitting on the phone myself😂)
How I did it 👇
@omooretweets
Aug 13
@venturetwins
Aug 12
Can’t stop watching this 🔥 @elevenlabsio speech-to-speech demo from @ammaar.
Such a cool way to control the emotion, timing, and delivery of AI voice.
Instead of describing what you want a clip to sound like…just voice it!
@venturetwins
Aug 12
@venturetwins
Aug 10
Finally getting into video generation from 3D models.
It’s hard to do, but the consistency and control can’t be beat.
This one took four tools (+ heavy AI assist), workflow 👇
@venturetwins
Aug 10
@venturetwins
Aug 04
Wild that you can now get a 3D motion capture in five minutes on an iPhone 🤯
This is from @MoveAI_’s new single camera feature.
Will take to Blender or Unreal later to make a character!
@venturetwins
Aug 04
@omooretweets
Aug 01
The concept of “curation as creation” is one of the most powerful things to me about AI art
As @nickfloats says, ideas are free!
The cost of testing has gone to near zero, opening up a whole new range of creative processes (and a new generation of artists)
@omooretweets
Aug 01
@venturetwins
Jul 30
@KingWillonius on his creative process with AI tools.
“Sometimes it might take 20 times regenerating a song or an image.
But that’s the fun part of the process – a lot of times, you stumble upon something brilliant on accident. When that happens, it feels magical.”
@venturetwins
Jul 30
@venturetwins
Jul 30
At @a16z, we’re big believers in the future of AI art.
We couldn’t be more excited to share a recap of our first artist retreat hosted last month in NYC.
So grateful to all of the creatives and companies who spent time with us. Hear from them 👇
@venturetwins
Jul 30
@venturetwins
Jul 30
@RalFingerLP on how the power of the AI art community.
“When I upload a model, the creative way people utilize my stuff is so exciting.
I constantly refresh the site [@HelloCivitai] to see if anyone uploaded an image.”
@venturetwins
Jul 30
@venturetwins
Jul 30
And finally, some 🔥 takes on the AI art debate.
“It’s the means to get somewhere, it’s not the final result….there’s always going to be naysayers, but that’s fine—we’re going to be ahead of them by a mile”
-Roustam Mirzoev
(more from @maxescu, @DaveJWVillalva, @GerdeGotIt)
@venturetwins
Jul 30
@venturetwins
Jul 29
Have been playing around with @runwayml‘s new Gen-3 image-to-video.
There’s an impressive amount of movement, but it’s still not quite fully controllable with prompts.
Some unfiltered generations 👇
(starting with “river turns pink, giant wave crests”)
@venturetwins
Jul 29
@venturetwins
Jul 29
Simone Biles starring in the anime Olympics ✨
@venturetwins
Jul 29
@venturetwins
Jul 27
In honor of the Olympics:
“Justine in Paris” 🇫🇷
(keep watching to see where I end up)
And the workflow 👇
@venturetwins
Jul 27
@venturetwins
Jul 19
Turn yourself into an animated Pixar character!
It takes a single picture + two clicks on a free tool (@heyglif)
Link 👇
@venturetwins
Jul 19
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.
