Challenges of leveraging AI in existing products + Implications of Deepseek

Up until recently Miro was the innovator’s defacto collaboration platform. In recent years a long list of apps added similar functionality to eat away at the online whiteboard segment. Our latest episode with Ioana Teleanu, Miro’s former Lead Product Designer for AI explores the challenges and opportunities of leveraging AI to enhance an existing product.Listen on Spotify | Listen on AppleKey takeaways:* When a product experience is already good, do we need to add AI?* AI makes it easier for more products to enter your category and add unexpected competition* Adding AI forces product teams to ship quickly to be able to learn, sometimes with uncertainty attached* You must consider if AI is the right solution to the problem you’re trying to solveIf you have any questions about these or other AI questions, reach out to us and we can help you upack what it means for your product.Thanks for reading Design of AI: Strategies & insights for product teams! This post is public so feel free to share it.Next week’s podcast episode features David Boyle who makes a case for why AI is transforming what we can learn about audiences and how those insights will improve our ability to strategize.Featured articlesAI Agents: How Businesses Must Adapt or Risk Obscurity (Arpy Dragffy)Ethan Mollick is right: #AIAgents are going to fundamentally change how websites, apps, and APIs are structured. But the implications go far deeper. We’re rapidly moving from a world where users seek out information to one where it is pushed to them by AI agents acting on their behalf. This shift has profound consequences for businesses of all sizes, and those that fail to adapt risk disappearing into the noise that these agents must sort through. (Read full article)The Wild Future of Commerce & The Rise of Conformative Software (Scott Belsky)This edition explores forecasts and implications around: (1) wild expectations for the future of commerce, (2) the era of “conformative software” that becomes more tailor-made as you use it, and (3) some surprises at the end, as always. (Read full article)25 Themes for 2025 (Bronwyn Williams)A cheat sheet of the 25 top things I'm watching unfold in 2025 (See presentation)Always remember… a good learner appreciates being proven wrongBiggest story of the week: Deepseek Ovetta Sampson is one of the must-follow voices in AI, bringing a rational perspective to an otherwise nonsensical chorus of voices. Read the full article here.Deepseek is the new Chinese model that is the biggest AI story of the year (so far). Yes the model is Chinese and may be compromised. But what’s most compelling about this story:* Despite the US places restrictions and pumping country-sized funding into AI, the model outperforms every model made in the USA.* Just like China has done in countless other industries (e.g. Shein and Huawei), they create copy-cat products that deliver 80% of the value for significantly lower cost.* We went into 2025 thinking OpenAI won the AI model wars that we’d all be subjected to whatever pricing they forced upon us. WRONG. Deepseek and many more will now come along and chip away at that expectation. More analysis about China’s disruptive Deepseek model:* Why DeepSeek Prompted a $1 Trillion Tech Sell-Off (Business Insider)* 🐳 I just finished a deep dive into DeepSeek’s latest R1 model & paper. I am genuinely impressed by their approach. A few thoughts. (Reuven Cohen)* Running DeepSeek r1 32B locally is kind of depressing. (Ethan Mollick)* DeepSeek is out, the Stock Market crashed and Silicon Valley is in tears. Here's what happened in the last 48 hours and what it means for your business (Tobias Zwingmann)* The labour market over the next few years is going to be a complete 💩show thanks to super smart, super cheap open source Ai. Here’s why. (Reuven Cohen)* What if I told you the $500B Nvidia selloff is missing the point entirely? I believe AI Revolution Just Had Its "iPhone Moment" (Simon Taylor)New AI products worth trying outStorm Stanford’s new platform enables you to build a paper about nearly any topic with summary and references. Helpful to get a deep dive into big topics, from your desired perspective.RileyNew market research platform which guides users through questions about their product, competitors, and data available. As a proof of concept of where things may head it is compelling.Thanks for reading Design of AI: Strategies & insights for product teams! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productimpactpod.substack.com