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.
Read More
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...
We’re excited to announce that a16z is leading the Series A for Nash, an API-based platform for last-mile delivery.
From Shakespeare to the Beatles, and Star Wars to Fortnite, every generation has a set of entertainment properties that define its culture and shared universe of stories. As we look to the coming decade, we believe the n...
The following transcript is from a conversation on the topic of NFTs in gaming, featuring Aleksander Larsen, Cofounder and COO, Sky Mavis/Axie Infinity; Gabby Dizon, Cofounder and CEO, Yield Guild Games; and Jonathan Lai...
Imagine you’re running a marketplace startup — let’s call it ACo — that allows consumers to sell spare items they have around the house. You notice after a few months that only 25% of your new sellers are coming back eac...
I’m excited to announce that a16z is leading the Series A for Bounce, a marketplace for consumers to access underutilized space in local businesses.
It’s never been a more exciting time to be a founder. Software continues to eat the world. Web3 is the next big leap for computing. As the world recovers from a pandemic, the way we work and live has changed, and you no...
Faith is inherently social. For example, there are 2.5 billion Christians globally and many congregate at church, Sunday school, fellowships, discipleships, and more.
The games industry has consistently found new ways to reduce barriers to entry.
The biggest social platforms today -- TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, to name just a few -- are heavily driven by creators who generate and share content for friends, family, and the broader community. As games continue to e...
Today, we have a pair of big announcements: Congratulations to Jonathan Lai, and welcome James Gwertzman -- our newest General Partners on the consumer investing team. Together, we’re doubling (er, tripling?) down on the...
Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) were some of the earliest social networks. In the late 1990s, MMOs like Ultima Online and EverQuest hosted hundreds of thousands of players who adventured together in 3D virtual...
The last eighteen months of COVID reminded us all how important travel is--it feels like we’ve all had to put trips on pause. For me, restricted travel has meant not being able to visit my family in India. For others, it...
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
Jun 17
Playing around with FaceFusion on Pinokio.
It’s wild how easy it is to turn yourself into any character now – this was my first try! https://t.co/pecTaHpYpy
@venturetwins
Jun 14
When your friend’s startup raises a big round (via @heyglif)
@venturetwins
Jun 13
Me leaving the function
(made with @LumaLabsAI, upscaled on @krea_ai)
@venturetwins
Jun 13
@illscience
Jun 09
Transformed my vinyl DJ set with @krea_ai
Fed in live video from my webcam to get real-time diffusion
@illscience
Jun 09
@venturetwins
Jun 04
Made a Pixar intro clip for my life 🎬
Kinda looks like the weird horse girl in middle school – so I know it’s accurate!
Photo from @Scenario_gg ➡️ video from @pika_labs‘s new image-to-vid model ➡️ music from @udiomusic
@venturetwins
Jun 04
@venturetwins
Jun 02
I’ve always wanted AI that can read your tweets and figure out what’s wrong with you.
@venturetwins
Jun 02
@venturetwins
Jun 01
Making my own cartoons on a Saturday morning 📽️
This is from ToonCrafter on @huggingface Spaces.
Used @fofrAI‘s character consistency model for the input images, and then upscaled the video on @krea_ai.
A few learnings 👇
@venturetwins
Jun 01
@omooretweets
May 29
🚨 New @a16z investment thesis!
It’s time for AI to reinvent the phone call – enter conversational voice agents 📱
What we’re excited to invest in + market maps (from me and @illscience) 👇
@omooretweets
May 29
@venturetwins
May 23
SF, imagined on @krea_ai video
Beta opened today 🎉
@venturetwins
May 23
@venturetwins
May 22
Video-to-video with the new lip sync feature on @DomoAI_
@venturetwins
May 22
@venturetwins
May 15
Why fear AI gfs if you can become one?
New image editor Anifusion makes it easy to turn yourself into a waifu from just one photo!
(on a serious note, this IP Adapter + pose control in the browser is so cool – 👏 to @EsotericCofe)
@venturetwins
May 15
@venturetwins
May 12
One of the hardest parts about making a cool AI video is object / scene consistency.
Combining @ideogram_ai‘s remix feature with @krea_ai‘s new video makes it 10x easier.
Here’s how ⬇️
(music courtesy of @udiomusic)
@venturetwins
May 12
@omooretweets
May 09
This is like one of those crazy “watch my kid grow up” YouTube videos
…but entirely generated with AI in 30 seconds
(cc @krea_ai new video product)
@omooretweets
May 09
@venturetwins
May 09
Cities, made on @krea_ai‘s new video product
@venturetwins
May 09
@kirbyman01
May 07
In consumer, retention is 👑 and it used to be the hardest metric to move. Here are 7 battle tested strategies AI native consumer products can utilize.
– Quick delivery of CPV
– Gated onboarding
– Reciprocity
– Smart notifis
– Streaks
– Wraps
– Status
@omooretweets
Apr 26
WebSim (@websim_ai) is such a fascinating look at what a truly generative Internet might look like.
The URL bar is a prompting engine that builds a fully interactive and customizable site based on your input 🤯
You can instantly create websites, simulators, games, and more.
@venturetwins
Apr 26
Made a demo on the new aspect ratio feature (and real-time generation) on @krea_ai 🪄
It features helpful arrows and a voiceover of the button-clicking that makes this kind of result happen.
@venturetwins
Apr 26
@venturetwins
Apr 23
It turns out you can get a color analysis on ChatGPT.
Upload a photo of your face (and a close up of your iris), ask for color codes, and then ask what to wear / avoid.
I’m kind of shocked this works??
@venturetwins
Apr 23
@venturetwins
Apr 17
There’s been an explosion of “looksmaxxing” apps that claim to grade your attractiveness using AI.
I tried five of them on photos of myself and Margot Robbie to determine if they are consistent and accurate.
The results were surprising. My thoughts 👇
@venturetwins
Apr 17
@omooretweets
Apr 11
I love to see AI products adding features like remix, comments, follower graphs, etc.
This feels like the closest thing yet to “AI-native social apps” – it creates the same clout and status-building incentives, but around prompts / ideas!
Some examples 👇
@omooretweets
Apr 11
@venturetwins
Apr 10
Video foundation models are getting a ton of buzz – but don’t sleep on image-based workflows.
People are making incredible things with an AnimateDiff LCM (hosted on @HelloCivitai) that allows you to easily morph between reference images.
A few of my favorite examples 👇
@venturetwins
Apr 10
@venturetwins
Apr 04
Playing around with the new multi-image prompting on @krea_ai 🪄
It’s amazing to see how the output changes in real-time as you upload new images and change the relative weights.
I’ve found it particularly useful if you want to combine a given character with a new style…
@venturetwins
Apr 04
@omooretweets
Mar 24
“Off label” use cases of ChatGPT are blowing up:
– Therapist
– Language tutor
– Career coach
– Research partner
This is a signal of consumer demand…and it’s time for startups to strike👇
@omooretweets
Mar 20
When measured in this way AI retention meets or even exceeds retention for pre-AI companies (per our benchmarks).
Median paid user retention is nearly identical from M1 – M6 for consumer and prosumer companies that charge via subscription.
@venturetwins
Mar 14
Used the new “patch enhance” feature on @krea_ai to transform this mech polar bear 🪄
It’s so easy to add, remove, or change details without altering the rest of the image.
(original image from u/theq1017752 on @HelloCivitai)
@venturetwins
Mar 14
@venturetwins
Mar 07
My dog Tilly is turning three this weekend (21 in dog years), so I used AI to make some fun photos 🎉
It took <20 minutes, two websites, and no code – and now I can run any prompt and get custom images of her.
You can do this for any person or pet. Here’s how ⬇️
@venturetwins
Mar 07
@omooretweets
Mar 02
Fun weekend project – use AI to generate a comic of you, your kids, or your friends!
And yes, this includes custom (and consistent) characters 🪄
How I did it using @dashstudioai ⬇️
@omooretweets
Mar 02
@venturetwins
Mar 01
It feels like we’ve unlocked huge improvements in controllability and accuracy of image models recently.
This was made with a single prompt on the new @ideogram_ai – accurate fingers AND text, and it perfectly represents a relatively complex concept 🤯
@venturetwins
Mar 01
@venturetwins
Feb 27
PSA: you can now add voice + lipsync to videos generated on @pika_labs.
And it’s powered by @elevenlabsio!
@venturetwins
Feb 27
@omooretweets
Feb 23
I built an AI tool for anyone who wants to be a better friend ✋
With ZERO manual intervention, it will detect who has a birthday coming up, find a flower shop local to them, and order / deliver a gift – right on time!
Here’s how 👇
@omooretweets
Feb 23
@venturetwins
Feb 22
🚨 New market map!
AI gives computers a personality – unlocking countless use cases across friendship, coaching, mentorship…and even romance.
What excites our team @a16z about AI companionship 👇
@venturetwins
Feb 22
@omooretweets
Feb 20
🚨 New market map!
Our team @a16z consumer dove into AI x productivity tools. These products don’t just help you organize tasks…they complete them for you.
What we’re excited about 👇
@omooretweets
Feb 20
@omooretweets
Feb 16
I’ve always wanted an AI that can prep me for my meetings…so I built one!
It emails me 15 minutes prior with a primer on:
1) Who I’m meeting
2) Where they work
3) Topics to cover
How I did it 👇
@omooretweets
Feb 16
@kirbyman01
Feb 14
In honor of Valentine’s Day, @a16z consumer is dropping a market map on AI x social 💗
We don’t think tech has to make us feel more alone.
In fact, it can help spark and foster new relationships, and help users build existing ones.
What we’re excited about 👇
@kirbyman01
Feb 14
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.
