3 ms·

I love how the marketing departments of these things always imagine people are just constantly plagued by the hassle of organising their flights, restaurant boo

by dools 18d ago

I love how the marketing departments of these things always imagine people are just constantly plagued by the hassle of organising their flights, restaurant bookings and movie tickets

LtWorf 18d ago
To be fair it is a pain in the ass… but i'm sure having an AI do it would make things worse :D
- darkwizard42 18d ago
  The average person is not using a calendar and is not getting more than 1 relevant personal email per week. Most people use their personal email extremely sparingly and it is inundated with promotional / account-related materials which are already handled rather deftly by most mainstream email providers
  - sudohalt 18d ago
    lol no one is getting personal emails, maybe some people get one every few months, but most probably never (not taking into account other than order/shipping confirmations, login codes, etc)
    - subpixel 17d ago
      I can only imagine you have no kids, serve on no boards, do not volunteer, and play no sports.
      - darkwizard42 17d ago
        The average person is not serving on a board and is definitely not volunteering. Sports communications at most travel/rec leagues is via group chat / Whatsapp / FB group.
        subpixel 16d ago
        First of all, the average parent is definitely doing some volunteering, at least in the US. From rec sports to scouts to church stuff to local committees, it's very rare for someone to be totally checked-out on all those counts. And as a bit of anectata: I play two sports and my child plays multiple. Every single one of those groups or teams relies on email, even when other modes of communication are layered on.
  - IshKebab 18d ago
    Ha, tell me you don't have children without...
    - darkwizard42 17d ago
      The average kid in an average suburban public school is not getting this amount of digital communication. If they are, they still aren't using a Google Calendar and are managing the complexity in much simpler ways (paper calendars)
      - pwarner 17d ago
        I think they mean the parents. I got 5 emails from the kids school today, and have regular calendar events related to the kids. So yeah this is for parents
        dools 17d ago
        To be fair I do get fucking hammered by school emails, and not just school school but dance school. But like, an AI would just tell me what’s in the email and ask me what I want to do about it which is almost always ignore it and I know what’s in the email because I have eyes.
dgellow 18d ago
And your emails! It can manage your email and schedule! Wow, so great, it can handle all the 10 DHL notifications and other spammy things I got over the past week. And my empty personal calendar
ihumanable 18d ago
I liked how in the example here it tells the user "Your flight is delayed 2hrs due to storms in Denver..." Then says "checking alternate routes" then shows them a card with their original flight details (it does have "Delayed" in red at the top) and asks them if they would like to change their flight. The user responds with "Yes please! :thumbsup:" The AI does not provide any information about the new flight, and only displays a card for the original flight, which being the original, is the day and time the User likely wanted to travel. Between it being the only piece of information on the screen and the status of "checking for alternate routes" it will certainly be a surprise for the User when their Sept. 17th 5:45 departure has been rescheduled for Sept. 19th to avoid a two hour delay. Helpfully replaced with a 2 day delay, thanks Muse!
- addandsubtract 17d ago
  Which airline lets you change flights?! Is this an NA thing?
  - throw03172019 17d ago
    Usually they let you without a fee if it’s their fault (I.e delay)
  - warkdarrior 17d ago
    Most airlines let you change flights, usually for a fee plus the difference in fares. The fee may be zero if your original ticket allows it -- sometimes called "flexible fare."
moomoo11 18d ago
these are all tarpit ideas i've gone on many trips before, and one of the most fun parts of it is doing the actual planning and finding stuff i'd much rather AI do the boring shit, like when it comes to insurance with multiple parties and service providers involved that don't talk to each other at all, making things 10x more complicated than they need to be
- jvwww 16d ago
  To each their own, I don't enjoy planning things in the slightest.
pydry 18d ago
i think product just uses these use cases as their example demos and then when they show it to marketing theyre like "OK I guess this is what it's for". (at least, this is what ive seen)
hazelnut 18d ago
It's because people who create these use cases perceive this as a difficult and painful task - but how many people really think about their flights over the day? Pretty sure the majority of Meta users has not flight booked for the next 3 months. I can only assume that this is more seen as a showstopper. Look how difficult this is and how we solved it. Shopping is another classic. I personally don't want to trust an AI agent with checkout. research is fine, but I don't want the AI to go on a shopping spree or Amazon added some subscription into their checkout flow and suddenly, I'm paying for Prime because my AI agent thought it's a good idea or just missed it. It's not unheard of that Amazon bundles a subscription into your checkout. So I don't think it's too unrealistic.
- mminer237 17d ago
  Not to mention the adversarial risk. Prompt injection, LLM-maximized advertising, and just common scams are going to take so much money if these catch on.
- aerodexis 17d ago
  handling end-to-end flight booking seems like a very good target use-case that if you can get right, implies that you got a lot of other things right. Just like how Amazon started off by selling books online.
iAMkenough 18d ago
Or in Muse’s case, helping your child pick out school supplies for their third grade year. Meta’s ideal parent is too busy to spend time with their kids, so they let the AI pick sponsored garbage for their cart and check out with their Link payment details.
ryandrake 17d ago
If you want to know why Silicon Valley Execs think these are such huge pain points, think about what Silicon Valley Execs farm out to their armies of personal assistants. Some Senior Vice President guy probably has a lot of restaurant bookings and would forget them if they didn't have a PA to help organize them. AI itself is a product that could only come from the mind of a corporate executive: It's a cheerful, helpful sycophant, who always does what it's told and stays in its lane, has infinite energy and memory, and allows the user to concentrate on his golf game instead of all those mundane other things. It's the perfect employee, from their perspective.
- kridsdale3 17d ago
  An employee who doesn't draw a salary is called something else.
  - evilduck 17d ago
    Intern?
DenisM 17d ago
The original selling point of mobile web (tiny screen with text-only data, before real mobile web) on mobile phones or even watches was checking stock prices and weather. It was really weird that checking stock prices was something you need to do on the go, especially from the watch.
weitendorf 17d ago
I’m pretty sure if you asked my mom what problems AI could help solve for her, navigating website’s purchasing/account flows and directly answering questions about the contents of her email would be #1 and #2. And my mom doesn’t use AI products like chatgpt because she’s not a student, nor agents because she doesn’t work in tech. To her AI, is no different from those chatbots websites pop up in the corner, the ones you never seek out or interact with intentionally, because you don’t need what they offer. So I actually think this kind of marketing is quite helpful for regular people who mostly just use their phones to buy stuff, looking things up, navigate life, and entertainment. My mom doesn’t give a shit about APIs or sandboxing, or benchmarks and to her it literally is a hassle to manage a million one-off accounts and confirmation codes and receipts when she just wants to buy something on her phone. She would not assume AI is capable of that or know how to set it up locally. that’s not even getting into the fact that the top 10% controls 50% of consumer spending in the US and primarily purchases convenience + health + experiences, whereas the other 90% primarily prefers to buy aspirational/identity based goods that evoke their mental model of a higher status lifestyle. It’s why the same bustling lifestyle archetype you criticize is literally used exclusively in car ads, housing marketing materials, consumer electronics, home goods, etc. Because normal people want to feel and/or look good not spawn subagents

by dools 18d ago

I love how the marketing departments of these things always imagine people are just constantly plagued by the hassle of organising their flights, restaurant bookings and movie tickets

LtWorf 18d ago

To be fair it is a pain in the ass… but i'm sure having an AI do it would make things worse :D

darkwizard42 18d ago
The average person is not using a calendar and is not getting more than 1 relevant personal email per week. Most people use their personal email extremely sparingly and it is inundated with promotional / account-related materials which are already handled rather deftly by most mainstream email providers
- sudohalt 18d ago
  lol no one is getting personal emails, maybe some people get one every few months, but most probably never (not taking into account other than order/shipping confirmations, login codes, etc)
  - subpixel 17d ago
    I can only imagine you have no kids, serve on no boards, do not volunteer, and play no sports.
    - darkwizard42 17d ago
      The average person is not serving on a board and is definitely not volunteering. Sports communications at most travel/rec leagues is via group chat / Whatsapp / FB group.
      - subpixel 16d ago
        First of all, the average parent is definitely doing some volunteering, at least in the US. From rec sports to scouts to church stuff to local committees, it's very rare for someone to be totally checked-out on all those counts. And as a bit of anectata: I play two sports and my child plays multiple. Every single one of those groups or teams relies on email, even when other modes of communication are layered on.
- IshKebab 18d ago
  Ha, tell me you don't have children without...
  - darkwizard42 17d ago
    The average kid in an average suburban public school is not getting this amount of digital communication. If they are, they still aren't using a Google Calendar and are managing the complexity in much simpler ways (paper calendars)
    - pwarner 17d ago
      I think they mean the parents. I got 5 emails from the kids school today, and have regular calendar events related to the kids. So yeah this is for parents
      - dools 17d ago
        To be fair I do get fucking hammered by school emails, and not just school school but dance school. But like, an AI would just tell me what’s in the email and ask me what I want to do about it which is almost always ignore it and I know what’s in the email because I have eyes.

dgellow 18d ago

And your emails! It can manage your email and schedule! Wow, so great, it can handle all the 10 DHL notifications and other spammy things I got over the past week. And my empty personal calendar

ihumanable 18d ago

I liked how in the example here it tells the user "Your flight is delayed 2hrs due to storms in Denver..." Then says "checking alternate routes" then shows them a card with their original flight details (it does have "Delayed" in red at the top) and asks them if they would like to change their flight. The user responds with "Yes please! :thumbsup:" The AI does not provide any information about the new flight, and only displays a card for the original flight, which being the original, is the day and time the User likely wanted to travel. Between it being the only piece of information on the screen and the status of "checking for alternate routes" it will certainly be a surprise for the User when their Sept. 17th 5:45 departure has been rescheduled for Sept. 19th to avoid a two hour delay. Helpfully replaced with a 2 day delay, thanks Muse!

addandsubtract 17d ago
Which airline lets you change flights?! Is this an NA thing?
- throw03172019 17d ago
  Usually they let you without a fee if it’s their fault (I.e delay)
- warkdarrior 17d ago
  Most airlines let you change flights, usually for a fee plus the difference in fares. The fee may be zero if your original ticket allows it -- sometimes called "flexible fare."

moomoo11 18d ago

these are all tarpit ideas i've gone on many trips before, and one of the most fun parts of it is doing the actual planning and finding stuff i'd much rather AI do the boring shit, like when it comes to insurance with multiple parties and service providers involved that don't talk to each other at all, making things 10x more complicated than they need to be

jvwww 16d ago
To each their own, I don't enjoy planning things in the slightest.

pydry 18d ago

i think product just uses these use cases as their example demos and then when they show it to marketing theyre like "OK I guess this is what it's for". (at least, this is what ive seen)

hazelnut 18d ago

It's because people who create these use cases perceive this as a difficult and painful task - but how many people really think about their flights over the day? Pretty sure the majority of Meta users has not flight booked for the next 3 months. I can only assume that this is more seen as a showstopper. Look how difficult this is and how we solved it. Shopping is another classic. I personally don't want to trust an AI agent with checkout. research is fine, but I don't want the AI to go on a shopping spree or Amazon added some subscription into their checkout flow and suddenly, I'm paying for Prime because my AI agent thought it's a good idea or just missed it. It's not unheard of that Amazon bundles a subscription into your checkout. So I don't think it's too unrealistic.

mminer237 17d ago
Not to mention the adversarial risk. Prompt injection, LLM-maximized advertising, and just common scams are going to take so much money if these catch on.
aerodexis 17d ago
handling end-to-end flight booking seems like a very good target use-case that if you can get right, implies that you got a lot of other things right. Just like how Amazon started off by selling books online.

iAMkenough 18d ago

Or in Muse’s case, helping your child pick out school supplies for their third grade year. Meta’s ideal parent is too busy to spend time with their kids, so they let the AI pick sponsored garbage for their cart and check out with their Link payment details.

ryandrake 17d ago

If you want to know why Silicon Valley Execs think these are such huge pain points, think about what Silicon Valley Execs farm out to their armies of personal assistants. Some Senior Vice President guy probably has a lot of restaurant bookings and would forget them if they didn't have a PA to help organize them. AI itself is a product that could only come from the mind of a corporate executive: It's a cheerful, helpful sycophant, who always does what it's told and stays in its lane, has infinite energy and memory, and allows the user to concentrate on his golf game instead of all those mundane other things. It's the perfect employee, from their perspective.

kridsdale3 17d ago
An employee who doesn't draw a salary is called something else.
- evilduck 17d ago
  Intern?

DenisM 17d ago

The original selling point of mobile web (tiny screen with text-only data, before real mobile web) on mobile phones or even watches was checking stock prices and weather. It was really weird that checking stock prices was something you need to do on the go, especially from the watch.

weitendorf 17d ago

I’m pretty sure if you asked my mom what problems AI could help solve for her, navigating website’s purchasing/account flows and directly answering questions about the contents of her email would be #1 and #2. And my mom doesn’t use AI products like chatgpt because she’s not a student, nor agents because she doesn’t work in tech. To her AI, is no different from those chatbots websites pop up in the corner, the ones you never seek out or interact with intentionally, because you don’t need what they offer. So I actually think this kind of marketing is quite helpful for regular people who mostly just use their phones to buy stuff, looking things up, navigate life, and entertainment. My mom doesn’t give a shit about APIs or sandboxing, or benchmarks and to her it literally is a hassle to manage a million one-off accounts and confirmation codes and receipts when she just wants to buy something on her phone. She would not assume AI is capable of that or know how to set it up locally. that’s not even getting into the fact that the top 10% controls 50% of consumer spending in the US and primarily purchases convenience + health + experiences, whereas the other 90% primarily prefers to buy aspirational/identity based goods that evoke their mental model of a higher status lifestyle. It’s why the same bustling lifestyle archetype you criticize is literally used exclusively in car ads, housing marketing materials, consumer electronics, home goods, etc. Because normal people want to feel and/or look good not spawn subagents