Intercom on Product: Building Software in an AI-first World

As Intercom’s product scaled, we struggled to keep the navigation clear and user-friendly. So how do you redesign information architecture without disrupting users? Senior Product Designer Pranava Tandra breaks down the process, from balancing simplicity with depth to making AI features more discoverable. She chats with Senior Director of Product Management Michelle Fitzpatrick about the challenges, trade-offs, and lessons learned in structuring a fast-evolving product for clarity and ease of use.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/R59AZsGDffY?si=if7eoqxIRinGiaOW

Read Pranava's blog post: https://www.intercom.com/blog/designing-for-clarity-restructuring-intercoms-information-architecture/

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AI models are getting cheaper, faster, and more accessible – but what does that mean for businesses and product builders? Renowned tech analyst Benedict Evans joins us to unpack the latest AI shifts, from DeepSeek’s rapid rise to the ongoing debate between deterministic and probabilistic AI. He chats with our Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor about the implications of falling compute costs, the race to refine AI agents, and how companies should think about building in an unpredictable landscape.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QkpqBCaUvS4

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How is AI changing the way we build product, the rituals we rely on to ship consistently innovative software, and our fundamental strategy as a customer service platform? In the latest episode of Intercom on Product, our Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor and our Chief Product Officer Paul Adams discuss all the far-reaching ways we are rethinking the basics and reinventing the company to adapt to the era of AI.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/etre_aw6_0o?si=fkWII4slHlsYnxpN

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Bobby Pinero, the co-founder and CEO of Equals, sits down with Mark Iafrate, Principal of Integrated Marketing at Intercom, to discuss the challenges of navigating product-market fit, the importance of understanding key metrics in the SaaS industry, common mistakes founders make in evaluating metrics, and the significance of storytelling in presenting data.

Watch Start Good trouble on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCIldMZCaFpAwM39seMpQCUyexY98tUF

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Is the AI hype justified, or is there more to the story? Hear renowned industry analyst Benedict Evans as he cuts through the noise and reveals what AI really means for industries like customer service.

Watch this episode here: https://events.intercom.com/on-demand/69b135d5-09ad-4023-a52e-b8a4ea0ee939/?referrer_page=de35aee1-a86c-48bb-8967-f5620d766eab

To check out all the sessions in full, check out: https://pioneer.intercom.com/

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Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe breaks down how AI is about to disrupt customer service on a scale we’ve never seen before. From bots talking to bots to AI surpassing human expertise—this is just the beginning. The race to build and ship the future is on.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WIBibfv3SKk

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The open questions raised by the rise of generative AI are now gradually getting answers. Intercom’s Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor walks us through how AI went from just about possible to seemingly inevitable over the course of two years. People speculate that AI will be as big as the internet or cloud or mobile, but as Des puts it, perhaps we should be thinking of this moment as a modern version of the dawn of electricity.

Watch this episode here: https://events.intercom.com/on-demand/509d896b-f6c6-4139-975d-d55c689a2ff8/?referrer_page=de35aee1-a86c-48bb-8967-f5620d766eab

To check out all the sessions in full, check out: https://events.intercom.com/pioneer-2024/

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In this episode of Intercom on Product, we talk with Enzo Avigo, co-founder and CEO of June, a next-generation analytics platform dedicated to B2B SaaS. He shares his key learnings from his entrepreneurial journey so far, including the importance of product-market fit (PMF), the real value of getting into Y Combinator, and the growing significance of founder-led marketing. Leading the conversation is Mark Iafrate, GTM Lead, Webinars & Partner Marketing, Intercom.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qha95Ig4gWw

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Emmet Connolly, our long time VP of Product Design at Intercom, talks about how the recent advent of modern AI has us revisiting everything from how we design and build interfaces to how we think about the roadmaps of our products. This is us very much sharing what we’re learning at scale as we pivot in the hopes it will be valuable to you too as you start to do the same.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8hMPj3AD34

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Great brands that endure always leap on new opportunities. To understand the new AI opportunity, you must understand the underlying technology. Our VP of AI, Fergal Reid, is the perfect person to explain that technology, and how it will transform the way you provide customer service. Fergal has been working on applying machine learning to customer service for many years, and has been leading our efforts in building generative AI into the core of the Intercom platform.  

You can watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZgHB9KFl1Y

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Intercom Product Manager Bethany Clark sits down to discuss B2B vs B2C product management with Bob Wallis, our Senior Product Marketing Manager. Having recently transitioned into B2B product management after several years in the B2C space, Bethany draws from first-hand experience and offers insightful perspectives on the key differences and commonalities between the two domains.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW2145l_7pM

📝 Read Bethany Clark's blog post: https://www.intercom.com/blog/b2b-vs-b2c-product-management/

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In episode 2 of Off Script, our Chief Product Officer Paul Adams talks about how AI has raised the bar for what great customer service looks like and what it takes to rise to the occasion. He explains our vision for AI-first Customer Service, and how we’re making that vision a reality.

Watch the full episode now YouTube: https://youtu.be/X3iNjM89fRA?si=fDtP8tl-FY4PHxxm

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This week on Intercom On Product we're bringing you the first episode of "Off Script", a new series of candid conversations with Intercom leadership about the extraordinary AI-driven transformation we’re currently experiencing.

In this episode, Intercom Co-Founder Des Traynor talks about the generative AI revolution that startups and all of technology – and very, very soon all of society at large – will certainly be going through.

You can watch this episode on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe to our channel to be the first to see new episodes: https://youtu.be/qiWV0T0qbeY?si=jpRYLrP24KrllXjv

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Our VP of Product Brian Donohue and Senior Product Manager Julia Godinho delve into the evolving landscape of product management, offering a glimpse into the challenges and opportunities that AI presents in this new era.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btllH4W4YS4

📝 Read Julia Godinho's blog post: https://www.intercom.com/blog/five-key-takeaways-about-ai-product-management/

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Emmet Connolly, VP of Product Design at Intercom, and Molly Mahar, Staff Product Designer at Intercom, sat down to dive into Molly's recent blog post titled 'A new age of UX: Evolving your design approach for AI products'.

📝 Read Molly Mahar's blog post: https://www.intercom.com/blog/design-ux-machine-learning-ai/

🎦 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc1WGS8QNeI

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Intercom Co-founder Des Traynor sat down with Paul Adams, our Chief Product Officer, and Emmet Connolly, our VP of Design for a conversation on the good, the bad and the ugly of 2023 and our expectations and predictions for the year ahead.

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/bLix8mAp5k8?si=rhPJ5ZnNn8TRpt11

Read a transcript: https://www.intercom.com/blog/videos/intercom-on-product-riding-the-ai-wave-in-2024

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In this episode of Intercom on Product, our Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor and Paul Adams, our Chief Product Officer, discuss how AI is going to transform the software industry, and how startups can identify the best AI opportunities to target vulnerable incumbents. 

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On this episode of Intercom on Product, Des Traynor, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer sat down with Paul Adams, our Chief Product Officer, to talk about the transformative impact of AI, evolving landscape of customer service, and how humans and AI will work together in the future.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0iTFjenUbQ

Transcript: https://www.intercom.com/blog/videos/intercom-on-product-ep20/

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In this episode of Intercom on Product, our Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor and Paul Adams, our Chief Product Officer, sit down to talk about our new product manifesto for the future of customer service and what it means for us.

Read the transcript: https://www.intercom.com/blog/videos/our-manifesto-for-next-generation-customer-service/

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/XgV4A-iStO4

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In today’s episode, Intercom Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor and Director of Machine Learning Fergal Reid delve into all things GPT – from the skepticism to its role in business communications, from the disruption of creative work to the future of user interfaces.

Learn more about Intercom's new AI features here: https://www.intercom.com/blog/announcing-new-intercom-ai-features/

Watch a video of this episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hBhLoBeQUU

Read a transcript here: https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts/intercom-on-product-ai-chatgpt-customer-service/

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