Artificial intelligence helps software adapt to customers

American tech entrepreneur Spenser Skates has a stirring vision for the future of artificial intelligence.

Amplitude Analytics chief executive and co founder Spenser Skates.

American tech entrepreneur Spenser Skates, who founded a unicorn company out of a voice recognition app and made his name in Australia forging powerful relationships with local trailblazers Atlassian and Canva, has a stirring vision for the future of artificial intelligence.

“The thing I’m really excited about is what we call self-improving products, where the product experience is always getting better, so it is constantly changing and adapting and evolving, based on what it knows you like as a user,” he tells The Australian.

“Right now, we think of products as ‘You get the same software that I do’, but if the software could dynamically change for each of us, that is super powerful.

“People have been trying to do this for years, but the problem is they haven’t had the data for it. Now we finally have the data. There is a huge unlock happening and we are going to come out with a whole bunch of it next year.”

Skates’s $US1.4bn Nasdaq-listed firm, Amplitude, was created a decade ago to help companies build better products through sophisticated analytics, helping them discover the features that users like and dislike, based on data.

Now it has embarked on the second stage of its evolution, using AI-powered features for every aspect of building products.

In October Amplitude announced it had acquired Command AI, an American start-up that provides intuitive, AI-powered user assistance to make software easier to use.

Skates says a launch planned for February will highlight how the start-up will enable Amplitude to offer “personalised user assistance” via in-product tours and onboarding experiences.

Specifically, Command AI will launch checklists and guides for Amplitude, which will let customers create app and website action plans as well as interactive product tours.

“One of the biggest issues with using software is it can be so complicated you don’t know what feature to use or how to do something very basic. What Command AI is going to allow all Amplitude customers to do is to be able to create a guide in their software for them to say, ‘OK, let me take you through the onboarding process’. So it gives you a pop up at the right time to explain to you how things work,” he says.

But he is most excited about the launch of Amplitude’s AI-powered user assistant.

“Most chatbots just talk back to you and say, ‘I’ll write an essay for you about how to do this’, but you still have to go figure it out and do it yourself, whereas with the Command AI product it will actually do it for you in the software, which is super cool. I’m really excited about that. Every single Amplitude product out there will have its own little virtual assistant that you can ask for help.”

Twenty-five million end-users globally interact with Command AI’s products regularly.

Amplitude is doubling down on its investment in Australia and New Zealand and expanding its local team with hires in sales, customer success, professional services and service engineering. More hires are planned in the coming months, particularly in sales and partner functions.

“Australia is one of 12 countries worldwide that we are considered to have a tier one presence in. In terms of its technology scene, it’s world class.”

Asia-Pacific and Japan represent 15 per cent of global revenues, up from 10 per cent a few years back, Skates says.

The expansion includes the recent appointment of Mark Drasutis as Amplitude head of value in Asia-Pacific and Japan, who will be responsible for helping teams get the most out of their data.

Drasutis has more than 25 years’ experience leading digital product teams and driving innovation, and was previously general manager of digital and customer platforms at the ASX, chief digital officer at IAG, and chief product officer for digital at News Corp Australia.

“Businesses are racing to keep up with their customers’ ever-evolving expectations. It’s a challenge for every digital leader I talk to in Australia,” Drasutis says. “That’s why Amplitude is a must-have. We help you understand how your customers use your product, what they like, and where they’re getting stuck.

“With these signals and insights, businesses can build product experiences that drive the outcomes they care about most, such as acquisition, conversion, retention and monetisation. Today, businesses from every region and industry rely on Amplitude to shape their digital future.”

Skates says Amplitude’s Australian business has seen product growth of 18 per cent during 2024.

“It is faster growing than almost any of the other OECD countries in terms of digital adoption. So that’s been actually pretty interesting because US growth is in the single digits in terms of digital adoption. European growth is similar,” he says.

Over the past year, Amplitude has expanded its partner ecosystem in Australia and New Zealand, including implementation partners such as Monks and Elephants Can Dance.

Amplitude also has dozens of integrations, including Braze, Snowflake, AWS and HubSpot, to meet customers where they are and help them get the most out of their existing investments.

Amplitude’s increasing investment will also help it serve a growing roster of local customers, including Canva, Atlassian, Zip, Seek, Culture Amp and SafetyCulture.

In September SafetyCulture, which has grown to become one of the world’s most adopted compliance operators, closed a $165m funding round led by Airtree and existing investors Blackbird and Morpheus Ventures to help it accelerate AI adoption. The raising valued the company at $2.5bn.

“I went to see SafetyCulture when I came out last year. I met with their data team and what they were doing was more sophisticated than any of the teams back in the US. We actually took some of the things they do and we now have implemented that as best practices worldwide,” Skates says.

“The way they manage their data team is best in class, where they make sure everyone can access that data in a self-service way, and then they have a way for managing the taxonomy and everything else, where they keep it all organised.”

Camilla Edwards, senior product manager at SafetyCulture, says working with Amplitude has become an integral part of her daily routine.

“Without it I wouldn’t be half as effective as a product manager,” she says. “Since Amplitude can display different chart formats and time spans, I can analyse past data to draw conclusions and look ahead to make proactive decisions, which significantly stream­lines my work. I also love how hands-on I can be with the data in Amplitude. I don’t need a data scientist; I don’t need other platforms. Amplitude Analytics has all the tools.”