el producto #386 🚀
Building responsible AI companions, Apple AI features, Google's algorithm secrets, Copilot for Telegram, Coaching Product Leaders, Measuring customer acquisition & more
Hey friends,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!
🎰 The week in figures
$20.3B: Food delivery apps Deliveroo, Just Eat Takeaway, Delivery Hero, and DoorDash have racked up $20.3B in combined operating losses since they went public
$6B: Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has raised a $6B Series B funding round, making it one of the biggest investments yet in the rapidly developing generative AI space. Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz participated in the funding round, which gave the startup a pre-money valuation of $18B
45M: Chinese shopping app Temu now falls under the EU's strictest online safety rules. With over 45M monthly EU users, Temu passed a threshold forcing it to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content and counterfeit products
101K: PwC plans to roll out ChatGPT Enterprise to its 75K US staff and 26K UK staff, becoming OpenAI’s Largest ChatGPT Enterprise Customer
22%: Revenue from ChatGPT’s mobile app increased by 22% on the day GPT-4o was announced
📰 What’s going on
Apple will announce new AI features, such as AI-generated emoji and an improved Siri, at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. Apple will launch basic and more practical AI features for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The AI tools are reportedly coming to iOS 18 and macOS 15, due out later this year
Apple plans to improve Siri with advanced AI, allowing users to control app functions through voice commands.The new Siri, planned for 2025, will analyze users' activity on devices to automatically activate features of the voice assistant
Google confirmed the authenticity of 2,500 leaked documents detailing the ranking algorithms in its search engine. The leak suggests Google uses data like clicks for rankings that it previously claimed it did not
Amazon is integrating Grubhub into its U.S. shopping app and website, offering Prime members direct ordering and a free Grubhub+ membership. This partnership, established in 2022, gave Prime members no-fee access to Grubhub and secured Amazon a 2% stake in the company
The FAA approves Amazon's Prime Air program to fly drones beyond a pilot's line of sight
TikTok is developing a separate version of its recommendation algorithm for U.S. users. The cloned algorithm could pave the way for TikTok to sell its U.S. assets in compliance with the new U.S. divest-or-ban law
Microsoft launches Copilot for Telegram in beta. Users can chat with Copilot for Telegram like a regular conversation on the messaging app
French AI startup Mistral AI announced its first code-generating model. Codestral was trained in over 80 programming languages, including Python, C, C++, JavaScript, and Bash
OpenAI is hiring research engineers to rebuild its robotics team; the company plans to develop tech that robot makers will integrate into their systems
Canva has announced a series of new updates including the launch of an entirely new product: Canva Enterprise. The new offering includes a series of visualization and productivity tools including docs, presentations, data visualizations and more. Canva has its sights set firmly on Google Workspace and Microsoft Office, as it looks to widen its strategy to include enterprises as well as its traditional user base of hobbyists and casual designers
Notion has launched a new dedicated home tab called ‘Home’ which allows users to add their favorite widgets to a single page. Many users were already doing this with custom built dashboards but Home is the first native version of this use case
📚 Good reads
[Podcast + Transcript] Effective approaches for coaching Product Leaders. Coaching relationships involves navigating differences in perspectives and understanding the individual's starting point. Coaches must manage personal biases and approach each coaching journey with curiosity and open-mindedness. Petra Wille, one of the most relevant voices in Product coaching, shares her perspectives in multiple coaching topics in this interview with John Cutler
Why data-driven product decisions are hard (sometimes impossible). Andrew Chen argues that the use of data to make product decisions can present a great paradox as it may not always reflect the reality accurately. The difficulty in seeking truth from data arises due to the complexity involved in interpreting it accurately. The integration of varied perspectives, intuition, and expert knowledge can lead to successful decision-making
Optimizing customer acquisition strategies for sustainable growth, by Elena Verna. The CAC:LTV ratio may not accurately reflect customer value over the long term, and optimizing for the lowest acquisition cost may not guarantee a return on investment. Focusing on payback period may be a more practical approach to customer acquisition strategies
Should AI understand your hearts and your secret life? Shyvee Shi shares a brief guide to building delightful and responsible AI companions. As Product builders, integrating AI with a respect for human psychology, privacy, and ethics can lead to the creation of AI companions that enhance human experiences and foster a future where technology elevates our humanity
Unexpected anti-patterns for Engineering leaders (applicable to Product leaders too). Will Larson, a veteran engineering leader and the CTO at Carta, holds 3 conventional “anti-patterns” up to the light for a closer look. Lessons from Stripe, Uber & Carta
That’s all for this week. As usual, feel free to reach out and share your thoughts by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Thanks for your support!
Angel