Anyone thought of how AI will disrupt consumer marketplace startups?

[pmsh]

I've seen some really cool AI consumer startups

Reference: This post on YC (W24) AI consumer startups

https://twitter.com/x/status/1775588976306553305

However, I Marketplace Startups like DoorDash, InstaCart & Airbnb have always been the major disruptors of consumer behaviour - These ones require human interaction so I'm always wondering how AI can disrupt these sort of business models.

 

[613jono]

@pmsh Some are cool, some I feel are deeply ambiguous on the ethical front.. some feel like a glorified deep fake.

Some of them I feel are engineers taking on arts, but the latter is much more than putting words together or putting visual elements together. People look for emotional connection and understanding, and I don’t think AI is capable of that now. Like Hayao Miyazaki said about AI art: “I am utterly disgusted. This thing doesn’t know what pain is. I feel like we are nearing the end of times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.” I don’t think I ever want to watch a film completely made by AI or a novel written by AI. Maybe I’m old school, but I feel there is sth amazing about humanity and art, and a world where everything is made of tech is dystopian. How sad it is to have A coaching you on relationships?! I’d think it is a red flag if my partner ever suggested it!!

Anyway, for marketplace, in my sector (travel), AI generated image is still illegal as it is considered misleading to consumers (rightly so), so I think its use will be operational.

 

[savedsinner777]

@613jono

I feel are engineers taking on arts, but the latter is much more than putting words together or putting visual elements together.

This encapsulates my sentiment. I love seeing progress, but these deepfake/lipsync/text-to-video startups all seem to overestimate the capabilities of current and near-future AI-models. Perhaps more importantly they all seem to think consumers would pay or engage with mediocre imagery and storytelling.

I like the idea of Kopia. They seem to be solving a good enough problem, but their solution also shows how much input is required to make AI do its thing. So, it's nice that YC is showing us a glimpse into the future, but I don't see disruptors in this list

 

[on_a_mission_]

@pmsh I had a recent stint founding a pet service marketplace for about 4 years. I’ve often thought about how marketplaces can tangibly benefit from AI; in the short/immediate term I feel there’s opportunities to improve on platform communication. Long term; probably more search results orientation, improving listing quality.

In our niche of pet services, there were a lot of behavioural aspects that go into picking the right person for your pet (fur baby); and the more we delved into it; the more complex it gets. Heuristics is something I’d imagine it’ll serve for these large market leaders.

 

[praisebetoyaweh]

@pmsh Read this post from the folks at NFX: https://www.nfx.com/post/ai-first-marketplace

 

[meki]

@pmsh Part of our strategy is to pull consumers off marketplaces. Marketplaces are merchant of record so the merchants filling the orders cannot market directly to those consumers.

With the loss of third party cookies, acquisition costs are rising.

Marketplaces can be as much as 25% on the sale as a fee. And the merchant pays it multiple times if the consumer buys through the marketplace.

Customer Generated Offers will allow consumers to make better deals directly with merchants.

 

[kenya38]

@meki This sounds well informed and thought out. Thanks.

What are “Customer Generated Offers”? I’d like to learn more about this topic and appreciate any guidance. Thanks again

 

[meki]

@kenya38 Customer Generated Offers enable consumers to make offers to buy products and shipping carts from merchants rather than merchants making offers to them (and getting them wrong 97% of the time).

Goal is increased conversion rates, cost effective customer acquisition. Spending time educating retailers in how to price. Had no idea how few of them know how to do it.

 

[chapmic]

@meki Interesting idea. But wouldn’t customers have an equal chance of getting it wrong? Why do you think customers know better than the merchant?

 

[meki]

@chapmic As a customer I know what I am willing to pay for an item at any point in time. We know that some customers will pay full price, no discounts. We know others will require heavy discounts. And yet others will be in between. Part of the product is showing merchants those insights.

The real sauce is the machine learning that will operate counter offers from merchants. Price is not the only lever in a market basket.