What if the biggest opportunity in artificial
intelligence isn't really about building the
smartest chat bot or, you know, simply the fastest
search engine? Yeah. What if it's actually about
building a truly genuine, evolving relationship
with technology itself? Two sec silence. I mean,
just think about that for a second. We're talking
about an emotional operating system. Welcome
to the Deep Dive. And today we're diving deep
into a really thought -provoking perspective
from Kirsten Green. She's a legendary consumer
venture capitalist over at Forerunner Ventures.
She's backed some truly iconic brands, companies
you definitely know, probably use every day.
And her bold claim is that right now, well, everyone
is building the wrong AI products. Her vision,
as you'll hear, it stretches far beyond just
smarter chatbots. We're talking about an entirely
new era, really, one defined by deep personal
connections with AI. It's a pretty fundamental
shift. Totally. And our mission for you, the
listener, is to really grasp this profound shift.
We'll explore why relationships are kind of emerging
as the new frontier for AI. What exactly makes
these connections possible and what this all
means for building the truly groundbreaking products
that will shape our future? It's pretty exciting
stuff. OK, so let's unpack this core idea she
has. Green defines major tech eras not just by
the technology itself, but by the fundamental
human behavior they enable. Right. So, for example,
the early Internet was all about outcomes. Think
about it. Buying a book online. Booking a flight,
finding information. It was about getting a specific
task done, often instantly. Efficiency. Right.
Get in, get out. And then the mobile era fundamentally
shifted us to attention. With a supercomputer
now in every pocket, the whole game became about
capturing and holding your focus. It was feeds,
notifications, endless on -demand content. Every
app was like locked in this digital gladiatorial
arena battling for every second of your pocket
time. And here's where Green argues the current
AI cycle is profoundly different. It's not primarily
about faster outcomes or even just more attention
grabbing. Yeah. She believes this era is really
about relationships and maybe surprisingly, even
affection. It's not just about creating better
tools, but fostering genuine, evolving connections
with technology itself. That's a big leap. It
is. Exactly. That's the bedrock. Consider ChatGPT's
explosive growth. Yes, the underlying tech was
incredibly impressive, sure. But Green points
out the real reason it just blew up was the human
-like conversation. Right. It felt familiar,
conversational, almost like chatting with a friend.
As she puts it, it was taking a behavior that
is fundamental and now making it possible online.
It just clicked with us on a human level. So
when we talk about tech, what's the core difference
between building for a one -time outcome versus
cultivating an ongoing relationship? Well, an
outcome is pretty much a transaction, right?
A relationship, though, it builds dynamically
over time through interaction. Okay, so for these
AI relationships to truly exist, to feel meaningful
and, you know... evolve with us. Green points
to three crucial unlocks, things that she says
haven't really come together like this before.
The first and maybe the most foundational is
memory that actually matters. Yeah. And this
isn't just about data recall, like a computer
perfectly remembering a file name from 10 years
ago. It's so much deeper than that. Right. It's
about context that builds over time and intuition
that moves forward. Imagine an AI that actually
remembers that half formed business idea you
mentioned six months ago. Wow. Or that fleeting
thought you had about a career change last Tuesday.
And then proactively it connects that to new
market trends it's observing or maybe your evolving
goals you've discussed since then. So it's synthesizing.
It's synthesizing information. Yeah. Like a human
friend who truly knows you and can anticipate
your needs. That's a total game changer. The
second unlock, she calls it data in a continuous
learning loop. We've heard for years that data
is a moat, right? Meaning it gives companies
a competitive advantage. But here, it's different.
Totally different. Every single interaction you
have, every preference you express, every goal
you state, it builds this incredibly rich, evolving
understanding of you as an individual. Exactly.
This isn't just a Netflix recommendation based
on your past viewing history, which is kind of
static, like a snapshot. This data is actively
used in real time to deepen and move the relationship
forward. It makes it richer, more personalized
with every single conversation. Okay. And that's
incredibly profound because the switching cost
for you, the user, suddenly becomes incredibly
high. Right. You're not just abandoning a piece
of software for another, you're abandoning a
relationship. You've invested time, thought,
and maybe even a little bit of your heart in
building. You'd have to start all over. You'd
have to start completely over with a new AI that
knows absolutely nothing about you. That's a
huge barrier. And the third unlock, this one
is truly fascinating. Voice is the great accelerator
of intimacy. When we type, we often self -edit,
right? We're precise. We curate our thoughts.
Maybe we're even a little performative. but when
we speak. Oh, we're so much less guarded. It's
true. We ramble, we reveal our tone, our hesitations,
our half -formed thoughts, even our emotions
leak through this richer, more human, more intimate
voice data when you combine it with that deep
contextual memory and the continuous learning
loop. Wow. It builds an incredibly deep and powerful
foundation for relationship building. It's like
stacking these nuanced Lego blocks of data, each
one adding a new layer of understanding. So how
does this memory that matters really differ from
traditional computer memory, just beyond recalling
a file? It's dynamic context and intuition, not
just static recall. It builds an evolving understanding
of you. Okay. So Green describes where we are
right now in the evolution of AI products as...
a messy creative stage. She says it's a really
fun place, but also one where we need a lot more
freedom to experiment. Her prediction is pretty
clear. They're going to be all new. We won't
just see smarter chatbots kind of bolted inside
our existing familiar old apps. She believes
we'll see entirely new product categories, completely
fresh user experiences built from the ground
up around this whole paradigm of relationships.
This means bold, almost wild experimentation
is absolutely key. We're truly in the like. Our
primordial soup of a new technological era. It's
exciting, but messy. Now, when it comes to distribution
and marketing, founders always ask VCs for the
secret sauce, right? The magic bullet. Oh, yeah,
every time. Green's harsh reality response to
that very common question. You've got to do everything.
Huh. Yeah, there's no single magic bullet, no
one trick. It's about creating a mosaic of messages.
But the absolute foundation, the simplest truth,
is this. You have to build something that people
actually need and that people actually like.
Beat. Seems obvious, but. But it's hard. As she
notes, with maybe a bit of a sigh, you can't
market products that are bad. It's so easy to
get lost in the dazzling tech, the algorithms,
the models. But that messy human element, what
people truly need, what they truly, like, that's
where the real challenge is for founders. And
honestly, it's something I still grapple with
myself sometimes. Getting that human connection
right is really tough. Why then is this considered
such a messy time for creating new AI products?
What makes it messy? Because the rules are totally
unwritten, bold experimentation is really needed
for these new kinds of experiences. Okay, so
here's where it connects to the past in a really
insightful way. Green's investment in Dollar
Shave Club. It's like a masterclass in seeing
beyond the obvious product. On the surface, it
was just razors. And an unbelievably crowded
market totally dominated by giants like Gillette
seemed crazy. Right. But the founder, as she
observed, saw a much deeper cultural shift happening.
Men were actively entering a broader personal
care conversation, you know, beyond just the
razor. The razor itself was just the vehicle,
not the destination. Plus, you had new business
models enabled by the social web, meaning they
could ship directly, bypassing all those traditional
retail gatekeepers. It was like a perfect storm
of culture. and technological shifts happening
at the same time. It's kind of genius, really,
when you look back. So what does this all mean
for the future of AI then? Despite ChatGPT's
incredible, almost overwhelming dominance right
now, Green doesn't believe everything will just
end up living in one single universal chat window.
No. Definitely not. She argues there's relevance
in the long tail. There's relevance in specialty.
And people want to have different kinds of experiences
at the category level. Yeah, that makes sense.
Think about it. How you'd want to manage your
most sensitive personal finances versus how you
might interact with, say, a mental health companion
AI. Completely different. Totally. You want and
you absolutely need tailored interfaces, specialized
experiences. General purpose tools like ChatGPT
are fantastic for inspiration for general knowledge.
knowledge, sure, but specialized experiences
are where the real deep value lies for very specific
needs. So what was that underlying cultural shift
that Dollar Shave Club really tapped into beyond
just selling razors cheaply? Men were increasingly
embracing personal care and the razor was just
an entry point to that. broader conversation.
Got it. OK, so Forerunner Ventures, they've identified
two massive, overarching consumer trends that
they see as absolutely ripe for this kind of
AI innovation. Yeah. Huge trends already reshaping
how we live. First, the proactive wellness revolution.
Yeah, this is enormous. We're really shifting
away from just, you know, going to the doctor
when we're sick. Now it's about. Daily optimization,
personalized health, preventing issues before
they even start. The AI opportunity here is truly
incredible. Creating an MD and a PhD in your
pocket, literally. Personalized guidance based
on all your unique data. Your sleep patterns,
your food choices, your genetics, your mood,
all feeding into a system that gives you deeply
tailored, proactive advice, not just generic
tips you read online. And the second big trend,
the quest for personal security. This isn't just
about physical safety, though that's part of
it, obviously. Right. It's broader. It's about
securing your entire life, finding a stable career
in a rapidly changing world, managing finances
wisely, maintaining a general sense of life stability
in what often feels like a very uncertain future.
Absolutely. AI can build profoundly impactful
tools to help people navigate this uncertainty
and truly flourish. Imagine an AI career coach
that helps you adapt to future job markets. That'd
be beautiful. Or a financial advisor that genuinely
understands your unique life goals and helps
you actually work towards them. This brings us
right back to Green's biggest, most audacious
prediction. The dawn of the emotional operating
system. The emotional operating system. That's
the phrase that really sticks with you, isn't
it? It really does. Any area of our lives where
we inherently need a relationship, whether it's
with our health, our finances, our learning,
maybe even companionship, is now ripe for AI
transformation. It's moving AI beyond just pure
function to build genuine, evolving connections.
And the real kicker here. She argues that large
established platforms are going to struggle to
simply bolt this kind of relationship centric
AI onto their existing architectures. Why is
that? Well, their entire design, their company
culture, it just wasn't built for it. It's hard
to retrofit that kind of deep relationship focus.
This creates a massive opening for entirely new
companies to be built from the ground up on relationships.
Whoa. Yeah, whoa is right. Imagine the depth
of understanding and connection an AI could truly
build, evolving with you over years, becoming
an almost irreplaceable part of your life. This
could genuinely be the new standard. It's kind
of mind blowing. So how does this emotional operating
system fundamentally shift what AI can actually
do for us? Like what's the core change? It moves
AI beyond mere function, creating genuine, evolving
and deeply personal relationships with us. OK,
so for founders, for creators looking to build
in this new landscape, Green offers some really
practical advice beyond the foundational questions
like why do people need this or why will they
come back? What's specific to building in this
AI era? OK, good question. First, she says build
with the LLM tailwind. Don't try to fight it,
meaning don't try to build a better foundational
language model yourself. leverage their incredible
power as a core engine, right? That frees you
up to innovate on the interface, the specific
knowledge, and importantly, that relationship
layer. Then... Focus your efforts squarely on
relationship opportunities in areas like health,
finance, education, and companionship. These
are inherently relational domains. Makes sense.
And finally, don't be afraid to experiment far
beyond just a simple chat bar. The winning interfaces
for these new relationship -based AIs, they probably
haven't even been invented yet. And that's the
really exciting part, the discovery. And then
her perspective on marketing, which is both simple
and incredibly profound. Yeah. Your product cut
your marketing. Authenticity is absolutely key
here. Marketing shouldn't feel like some separate
glossy layer you slap on at the end. It should
organically extend the product's inherent value
and its personality. Consumers today are incredibly
savvy. They see right through fakeness. Beat.
Being early in a totally new category like consumer
AI gives you a temporary timing advantage, a
unique chance to truly surprise and delight people
before the space gets super crowded. But that
initial wow factor, that timing advantage, it
fades eventually, right? So for long -term defensibility,
founders really need to consider what she calls
the network effect question, which is, what about
your product gets better for one user because
you bring other people into the experience? Yeah,
and in AI, this is often deeply data -driven.
More users interacting means the underlying model
learns faster, it becomes more nuanced, more
capable, and ultimately more personalized for
everyone. It's a kind of collective intelligence
that ultimately benefits. So what then is the
most important advice for founders trying to
build a truly lasting AI product in this new
relationship era? I'd say leverage the big LLMs,
focus intensely on relationship building in key
areas, experiment bravely with the interface,
and let your product itself be your most powerful,
authentic marketing sponsor. So what does this
all mean for us as we try to navigate this rapidly
evolving tech landscape? Kirsten Green's core
insight here, it feels... truly profound. The
real competitive mode in AI isn't necessarily
about owning the biggest base models or just
having the most raw computing power. No, it's
really about the relationship you manage to build
with your users. Through continuous learning,
that incredibly deep memory we talked about,
and increasingly intimate interactions, especially
using voice AI, has the potential to create what
she calls an emotional operating system. This
then creates an immense, almost unbreakable emotional
switching cost. You're not just ditching a piece
of software for a competitor. You're actually
abandoning a co -created relationship, a digital
partner that understands you uniquely. Yeah,
imagine the depth of understanding and connection
an AI could truly build, evolving with you over
years, anticipating your needs, maybe even before
you voice them yourself. That's a really powerful
thought. This is the new standard she's predicting.
We are truly at the beginning of a massive platform
shift here. This messy creative stage she talks
about. It's not just some phase we're passing
through. It feels like the opportunity. Totally.
And the question for you, the listener, is. Are
you bold enough, curious enough to help define
what comes next? What kind of relationships will
we form with these new intelligences? It's kind
of up for grabs. So think about this. What relationship
in your own life, maybe with your health, your
finances, your learning, perhaps your creative
process, what could be profoundly transformed
by an AI that truly understood you, that built
an emotional operating system around your unique
needs and aspirations? Definitely something for
you to mull over. That's our deep dive for today.
Thank you so much for joining us. Until next
time, keep exploring. Outro music.