Using generative AI to draft comparison content
Adam describes how Inflectra uses generative AI to speed up the creation of product comparisons for specific search topics.
Summary ·Watch at 03:50
Founder conversationGuru $10m+
Propelling Productivity and Growth Over $10M ARR Using GenerativeAI
Generative AI for comparison listicles and RFI answers, plus testing an AI feature before a large investment
Adam Sandman · Inflectra Corporation
Published September 6, 2024About this resource
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What you’ll learn
Adam describes how Inflectra uses generative AI to speed up the creation of product comparisons for specific search topics. Adam explains how a small sales team uses AI to draft tailored answers that fit procurement questions and length limits.
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Speeding up RFI and RFP responses
Adam explains how a small sales team uses AI to draft tailored answers that fit procurement questions and length limits.
Summary ·Watch at 05:46
Testing an AI feature before a large investment
Adam describes a small AI prototype that drew customer interest and signaled the product’s direction to buyers in regulated industries.
Summary ·Watch at 07:42
Working with AWS on the product roadmap
Adam shares how Inflectra used an AWS workshop to explore AI opportunities and develop a roadmap for its testing platform.
Summary ·Watch at 12:33
AI listicle workflow
“Listicles & GenAI Replaced listings with featured snippets Scraping listicles from the Internet “testing tool” vs. “testing tools”, it matters! “Helpful Content” Google Search update, decimated a lot of Internet websites Included in Google Helpful Content”
RFI time savings
“RFIs Easy as Pie Can simply use ChatGPT free or paid to summarize your own IP and content Verify and send Estimate: 8 person hours to respond. (60% time saved) You know the correct answers and can validate the query easy.”
A GenAI MVP in two weeks
“ChatGPT GenAI MVP Coded in 2 weeks Customer feedback hugely positive When can we have this Opportunity to sell AI tokens from OpenAI account Add-On Infrastructure let us build prototypes quickly without cost to roadmap”
Marketplace cross-sell opportunity
“SpiraApp Marketplace $4M ARR cross-sell opportunity to existing customer base with marketplace apps $2M ARR cross-sell opportunity to existing customer base of AI Assistant to Spira Sell AI add-on products from Inflectra & Partners, app store model”
Project Insight opportunity
“Project Insight™ Est. Year 1ARR opportunity: ~$5M ARR TAM: $1.6B Competitive Moat Next-Gen AI Platform Developed in AWS “Working Backwards” Session”
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Propelling Productivity and Growth Over $10M ARR Using GenerativeAI - Slide Deck
Adam Sandman is the Founder & CEO of Inflectra. He started programming at the age of 10 before moving to the US to work in the IT Industry. He started Inflectra after working in consulting for many years and realizing that companies were constantly paying the price for poor software quality.
- Company revenue
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21 passages
Generative AI and Inflectra growth
Slide text
SaaSOpen, September 2024 Propelling Productivity and Growth Over $10M ARR Using GenerativeAI Adam Sandman CEO & Founder, Inflectra
Inflectra's ARR climbed steadily to over $10M
A bar chart of ARR shows the company's revenue growing year after year. It starts near $1M around 2010, reaches about $10M in 2023, and is higher again in 2024.
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Our Revenue Growth
The GenAI opportunity areas
Agenda: three GenAI sections in 20 minutes
The talk is organized into three sections of GenAI examples from Inflectra. Section 1 covers sales and marketing (SEO listicles, RFI replies), section 2 covers building an AI MVP, product whitespace and a marketplace upsell, and section 3 covers DevOps, Project Insight and a blue ocean.
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Over the next 20 minutes I’m going to show you SECTION 1 Using GenAI for Sales & Marketing SEO Optimized Listicles Replying to RFIs Easy as Pie SECTION 2 SECTION 3 Building a GenAI App as an MVP Creating Product Whitespace Revenue upsell w/ app marketplace Future of DevOps with AI Project Insight Creating a blue ocean with GenAI
Section 1: GenAI for sales and marketing
The first section applies GenAI to two go-to-market jobs: winning visibility in Google Search through listicles, and answering RFIs.
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Using GenAI for Sales & Marketing Google Search and Listicles Replying to RFIs Easy as Pie Let’s jump into Section 1 I’m going to show you SALES & MARKETING GOOGLE RFIs
AI-generated picture of a marketing team
The sales and marketing section opens with an AI-generated image of the Inflectra marketing team working with AI. It illustrates the theme rather than presenting data.
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Using GenAI for Sales & Marketing Prompt: Can you create an image that illustrates the Inflectra marketing team using AI
AI for listicles and search
Google changes made listicles harder to rank
Listicles still earn visibility, but Google's Helpful Content update and featured snippets changed the game. The slide notes that listings were replaced by featured snippets and that wording such as "testing tool" versus "testing tools" matters. The screenshot shows Inflectra's listicle included in Google's results.
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Listicles & GenAI Replaced listings with featured snippets Scraping listicles from the Internet “testing tool” vs. “testing tools”, it matters! “Helpful Content” Google Search update, decimated a lot of Internet websites Included in Google Helpful Content
AI removes the boilerplate from writing listicles
Generative AI cuts the repetitive work of listicles, where each tool needs a similar description and an explanation of how it fits that list. The screenshot is a ranked best-tools article with a logo and a short paragraph per tool, all of which follows a common template.
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AI Make Listicles Less Painful Lots of boilerplate for a tool and how it fits each listicle
Reducing RFI response effort
Manual RFI responses cost about 20 hours
Enterprise deals depend on RFIs and RFPs to shortlist vendors, and answering them by hand is slow: lots of copy and paste from the website, plus summarizing. The speaker estimates 20 person hours per response. The screenshot is a spreadsheet of requirements awaiting vendor scores and comments.
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RFIs Easy as Pie Lots of manual copy and paste from website Need to summarize Estimate: 20 person hours to respond. Enterprise deals rely a lot of RFIs and RFPs to shortlist vendors, PITA to respond.
ChatGPT cuts RFI work to 8 hours
Using ChatGPT to summarize your own content cuts RFI effort from 20 to 8 person hours, a 60% time saving. It works because you already know the right answers and can verify the output easily. The screenshot shows ChatGPT writing a product-benefits list from a short question.
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RFIs Easy as Pie Can simply use ChatGPT free or paid to summarize your own IP and content Verify and send Estimate: 8 person hours to respond. (60% time saved) You know the correct answers and can validate the query easy.
Building an MVP and marketplace upsell
Section 2: MVP, whitespace and marketplace upsell
The second section moves from marketing to product. It covers building a GenAI app as an MVP, finding product whitespace with AI, and generating extra revenue by upselling add-ons through an app marketplace.
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Building a GenAI App as an MVP Creating Product Whitespace Revenue upsell w/ app marketplace Let’s jump into Section 2 I’m going to show you MVP PRODUCT UPSELL
A ChatGPT MVP built in two weeks
Add-on infrastructure let the team prototype quickly without taking time from the roadmap: the ChatGPT integration was coded in 2 weeks and customer feedback was hugely positive. It also opened an opportunity to sell AI tokens from an OpenAI account. The screenshot shows a ChatGPT menu inside Inflectra's requirements tool offering test cases, tasks, BDD scenarios and risks.
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ChatGPT GenAI MVP Coded in 2 weeks Customer feedback hugely positive When can we have this Opportunity to sell AI tokens from OpenAI account Add-On Infrastructure let us build prototypes quickly without cost to roadmap
Spotting product whitespace using AI-made slides
A LinkedIn post about AI tools for risk-based test optimization is used as an example of finding product whitespace with AI. The post's slides were designed with AI assistance, and the slide notes it is not a commercial endorsement.
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Product Whitespace with AI This post is NOT a commercial endorsement, slides were designed with the assistance of AI.
A marketplace opens $6M of cross-sell potential
An app store model lets Inflectra sell AI add-ons, its own and partners', to existing customers. The slide sizes two opportunities: $4M ARR from marketplace apps and $2M ARR from an AI Assistant for Spira. The screenshot lists preinstalled apps, including Azure OpenAI and ChatGPT integrations.
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SpiraApp Marketplace $4M ARR cross-sell opportunity to existing customer base with marketplace apps $2M ARR cross-sell opportunity to existing customer base of AI Assistant to Spira Sell AI add-on products from Inflectra & Partners, app store model
AI-driven DevOps opportunity
Section 3: DevOps, Project Insight, blue ocean
The final section looks ahead. It covers where AI fits in DevOps, the new product Project Insight, and how generative AI could open a blue ocean, a new uncontested market, in software development and testing.
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Future of DevOps with AI ProjectInsight Creating a blue ocean with GenAI Let’s jump into Section 3 I’m going to show you DEV OPS INSIGHT BLUE OCEAN
AI can sit around every DevOps stage
AI can sit around every stage of the DevOps loop. The infinity diagram shows the Dev half (plan, create, verify, package) and the Ops half (release, configure, monitor), with an outer ring marked AI at each point around it.
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DevOps: AI Everywhere
Project Insight: a ~$5M ARR bet
Project Insight is a new AI product with an estimated year-one opportunity of about $5M ARR and a $1.6B TAM. The slide lists a competitive moat and a next-generation AI platform, and says it was developed in an AWS Working Backwards session. The screenshot is the winning idea sheet, a hub that helps product managers see risks before they happen.
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Project Insight™ Est. Year 1ARR opportunity: ~$5M ARR TAM: $1.6B Competitive Moat Next-Gen AI Platform Developed in AWS “Working Backwards” Session
Traditional test automation is written as code
The slide sets up the claim that generative AI is changing software development and testing forever. It starts with today's approach: a scripted table of actions that opens a site, enters a username and password, clicks submit, waits, and logs out.
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Creating a Blue Ocean GenerativeAI is changing software development and testing forever
From code to plain-English test steps
The same login test that took six scripted actions can be written in natural language. Three AI steps replace it: log in, wait 5 seconds, and log out. This is the shift from code to natural language the speaker calls a blue ocean.
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Creating a Blue Ocean GenerativeAI is changing software development and testing forever From Code to Natural Language
A joking warning about AI in DevOps
The slide pairs a Terminator movie quote, about a system removing human decisions and becoming self-aware, with the caption "Hopefully NOT the future of DevOps". It works as a humorous counterpoint to the AI-everywhere DevOps diagram.
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Hopefully NOT the future of DevOps
Recap of the three sections
The recap repeats the three sections from the agenda: GenAI for sales and marketing, building an AI MVP and upselling, and DevOps, Project Insight and the blue ocean.
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Over the last 20 minutes, I showed you: … with real examples! SECTION 1 Using GenAI for Sales & Marketing SEO Optimized Listicles Replying to RFIs Easy as Pie SECTION 2 SECTION 3 Building a GenAI App as an MVP Creating Product Whitespace Revenue upsell w/ app marketplace Future of DevOps with AI Project Insight Creating a blue ocean with GenAI
Thank you and speaker contact details
The talk closes with thanks from Adam Sandman, CEO and founder of Inflectra. The slide invites the audience to get in touch with him by email or on LinkedIn.
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SaaSOpen, September 2024 Thank you! [redacted email] https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamsandman/ Adam Sandman CEO & Founder, Inflectra