el producto #440 🚀
Your AI strategy can't wait, WWDC announcements, OpenAI new model & pricing, Meta's "superintelligence" team, AI workflows, The fall of stories and epics, & more
Hi friends 👋
Happy weekend, and welcome to a new edition of el producto
🎰 The week in figures
$15B: Meta plans to invest $15B to acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI, aiming to support its superintelligence strategy and achieve AI leadership
$18.4B: Chime launched IPO $14.5B (lower than the $25B it reached in 2021), but soared to 18.4 in Nasdaq debut
$10B: OpenAI has hit $10B in annual recurring revenue and is projected to hit $125B by 2029
$540M: Cyera, the Israeli data security startup, raised $540M, doubling its valuation to $6B. The funds will enhance its AI-powered data security platform, which has seen significant growth and expansion recently
$215M: Spain’s quantum software startup Multiverse Computing has secured $215 million in a Series B funding, and it’s now valued at over $500M
$150M: Glean, the gen AI enterprise search startup raised a $150M Series F, boosting its valuation to $7.2B. Over $100M in ARR, now exploring new markets & partnerships
2: Apple mentioned Siri just twice in this year’s WWDC keynote
99% of hiring managers are now using AI in some capacity during the hiring process, and 53% of hiring managers say they can tell when candidates use AI for applications, according to a new global report
📰 What’s going on
OpenAI launched o3-Pro this week, and price cuts along with it. The base o3 model got an 80% price slash from $10/$40 per million tokens (aka ~750K words) down to just $2/$8, while the new flagship o3 Pro clocks in at $20/$80—which is ~87% cheaper than the old o1-pro it's replacing. Sam Altman says OpenAI will release its open weight model later this summer (rather than the expected June delivery)
ChatGPT Projects now lets you upload files on mobile, do deep research, and use voice mode; it’ll also remember context from past chats in that project
Apple Liquid Glass: UX genius or accessibility nightmare? One of the most significant announcements during WWDC was the all-new design language that Apple is calling Liquid Glass. Many companies have tried and failed to do this, the most notable being Microsoft’s Windows Vista. To be fair to Apple, many of the issues with Vista glass effects UI were related to processor limitations that Apple users in 2025 are unlikely to run into. The main concern, though, is accessibility. And because of this, the reaction to Liquid Glass has been mixed, to say the least
iOS 26 debuts with new AI tools: real-time translation in Messages and FaceTime, Genmoji creation, Visual Intelligence, enhanced Apple Wallet functionality + Workout Buddy real-time coaching
Google’s Gemini has released Scheduled Actions on its mobile app - a new feature that allows you to ask Gemini to perform a task at a specific time. For example, you can ask it to provide a summary of your upcoming meetings or unread emails every morning
Gemini has also been added to Google Forms, which lets you summarize responses. Additionally, Google Sheets now enables you to edit charts created with gen-AI
Google Labs unveils Portraits, an AI tool featuring Kim Scott of "Radical Candor," offering workplace coaching
WhatsApp is getting AI-powered summaries on mobile. New leaks show that once activated, if there’s a large enough message backlog, a new “Summarize with Meta AI” button appears in place of the usual “X unread messages” label. Tapping it returns a brief recap of the conversation
Meta’s AI app has been publishing users’ private conversations onto a public feed. People have seen other users’ deeply personal confessions, health questions, dilemmas, requests for help with tax evasion, along with private information such as names, numbers, and even court details
Mark Zuckerberg is assembling a "superintelligence" AI team with nine-figure salaries to attract top talent, aiming to create an AI platform “with powers that ultimately exceed those of the human brain,” beyond AGI
Meta has revealed a new (open-source) AI “world model” called V-JEPA 2 that can understand real-life physical movements, so V-JEPA 2-powered AI agents or robots can learn, plan, predict, and make decisions in a more human-like way, in the real world. V-JEPA 2 was trained on over 1M hours of video, images, and robot data, to help robots/AI agents understand ‘common sense’ connections
Mistral AI’s Magistral is introduced as their first reasoning model challenging DeepSeek. It’s designed for precise, step-by-step deliberation and analysis and offers traceable thought processes. Magistral Medium has shown strong performance on AIME2024, and both Magistral Small (open-source) and Medium variants support multilingual chain-of-thought processes across various languages. It’s highlighted for applications in regulated industries (legal, finance, healthcare, government) due to its auditable reasoning
Figma Sites now has code layers, so you can add interactions and animations to your design files, either via your own code or with Figma’s AI
Snap plans to launch Specs in 2026, featuring see-through lenses and an AI assistant. Competing with Meta and Google
Klarna launched a voice-powered AI version of its CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, to handle customer service interactions. The AI lets users leave feedback, suggest improvements, or ask questions. Every call is transcribed and sent directly to Klarna’s product teams, turning real customer input into real product insights, fast
Coinbase announced that it will launch its first credit card, the Coinbase One Card, on the American Express network. The card will offer up to 4% Bitcoin back on every purchase
Plaid introduced Plaid Protect, a new anti-fraud engine that proactively identifies suspicious activity using ML, helping financial institutions mitigate risk and reduce fraud losses
Salesforce will restrict third party apps from storing Slack messages long term—this will hurt companies like Glean, which searches across all your company apps to answer questions and automate work
📚 Good reads
The gentle singularity. Sam Altman declared “we are past the event horizon” of AI singularity (where AI surpasses human intelligence), predicting it will feel gradual and manageable as we live through it, with 2026 bringing AI systems that discover novel insights and 2027 bringing real-world robots
Lovable + Cursor: a powerful workflow step-by-step. Useful article introducing a streamlined workflow combining Lovable’s design tools, GitHub’s version control, and Cursor’s AI coding assistant. It provides step-by-step instructions to integrate these tools, maximizing efficiency for creating robust, frontend-focused applications. Complement with this vibecoding GTM guide
AI Products overcoming the “blank canvas” problem, by Adam Fishman. Leading AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude rely on template-driven activation to reduce cognitive load and help users overcome the "blank canvas" problem. By offering pre-populated prompts and vertical-specific workflows, these products get more users (and faster) converted in habitual users
AI metrics: the eternal debate. Navigating through the confusing world of measuring gen-AI adoption, Ben Evans draws parallels with past tech trends. He breaks down the pitfalls of relying on ambiguous metrics like "weekly active users" and raises questions about what really matters as AI blends into everyday tools. Insightful yet pragmatic, this read unpacks why picking the right metrics will ultimately shape the domain’s future
Your AI strategy can’t wait—key takeaways from Meeker’s 2025 trends report. We're in the "suddenly" phase of AI—it’s reshaping product development at warp speed. Mary Meeker’s report highlights how AI’s breakneck adoption rates, plummeting costs, and demand for immediate innovation should completely redefine your roadmap. Waiting is not an option—adapt fast or get left behind. A great read, including mini-playbooks
The gradual fall of Stories and Epics. John Cutler explores why product teams are shifting away from rigid frameworks like user stories and epics. He discusses the growing appeal of dynamic, outcome-oriented approaches to align teams better and deliver value faster. A must-read for PMs eager to challenge old habits
That’s a wrap for this week! 🌟
I’d love to hear your thoughts—what stood out to you, and how are you thinking about integrating these insights into your Product strategy? Reply to the email or drop a comment on Substack to share your take. And if you found this valuable, forward it to a fellow PM, Product enthusiast, startup founder or entrepreneur who’d enjoy the read
See you next week! 👋
Angel