AI Powered Co-Creator

Vouch AI

In 2023 with the rise of AI creative tools, Vouch embarked on an initiative to understand where we could incorporate AI into the platform to enhance our user workflows and increase our value proposition. Operating as a video centric startup since 2020, Vouch’s primary use case was making it easy for customers to collect, create and share videos to their professional networks. As such, Vouch wanted to evaluate critically where AI made the most sense to optimize the platform. I led the research, prototyping, evaluation and implementation of our AI features to the platform.

Problem

AI as a capability began to steadily incorporate its way into our competitors offerings as a means to offer increased efficiency and value. To continue to attract new business and to maintain our current customers base, it was important for Vouch to understand how AI might benefit their workflows and how might we right size a solution into our platform in a meaningful way.

The goals were:

  • Understand the potential use cases for AI amongst our customers

  • Research the best in class implementations of AI in the video market

  • Evaluate on which features could benefit from AI on our platform

  • Incorporate AI into our platform that provided the most immediate value

Process

Customer and Market Research

Our primary customers were Employer Brand teams, focused on creating and distributing content to enhance their company's image and attract/retain talent. To best understand their needs, I conducted extensive customer interviews. The insights revealed that AI offered the most significant workflow improvements in four key areas:

  1. Optimized video highlights: Automatically identifying and extracting the most impactful moments from videos.

  2. Video summaries: Generating concise, accurate descriptions of video content.

  3. Auto-edits: Streamlining editing by removing filler words, "ums," and other distractions.

  4. Blog content generation: Transforming video transcripts into engaging social media posts.

We then conducted a competitive analysis of established video platforms that had already integrated AI. Key findings showed that AI functionality was primarily concentrated within the creator workflow. Specifically:

  • Library list views: AI generated videos from selected content.

  • Detail video view: AI provided video summaries and generated social blog content from transcripts.

  • Editor flow: AI enabled editing via transcripts, automated cuts, and highlight generation.

User Journey Flows

User flows clarified user intentions for tasks like selecting clips to create AI content from, blog creation and more. These flows were extended to include potential user thoughts and decisions, providing insight into the user's perspective and the most convenient ways for them to achieve their goals.

Information Architecture

Vouch’s primary architecture is centered around a video library, with individual videos that exist within it and at the detail video view the editor. The implimentation of AI to each parts of the site required an evaluation of where the most intuitive placements for some of the AI feature usage might exist. After a content audit, a sitemap was developed to define the relationship between pages through content and functionality. This provided a clearer understanding of intended user behaviour and informed the design of AI elements and functionality.

Technical Feasbility & Limitations

At Vouch, as we embarked on the technical integration of an AI-centric model, OpenAI was chosen for its robust interoperability and extensive functionality. Recognizing the potential limitations of working exclusively within the OpenAI platform, we strategically scoped the initial outputs of our AI functionality extension to align with the framework provided by ChatGPT. This approach allowed us to leverage OpenAI's powerful capabilities while ensuring a seamless integration with our existing systems and workflows. By focusing on functionalities achievable within the ChatGPT framework, we were able to expedite development and deliver tangible AI-driven enhancements to our customers and stakeholders.

Wireframes

Before the design phase, wireframing was conducted to rapidly evaluate concepts for structure, content framing, and navigation. During ideation, several design concepts were explored but not all progressed to the design phase. One considered concept involved adding an edit by transcription via the new video editor. Ultimately, the decision was made to simplify the first implementation of AI to be around content strictly based around the limits of ChatGpt. As well initially the thought was for a full screen experience but this tested poorly as users would lose context of what they had selected during the library. This process helped identify potential issues early, allowing for iterative improvements and more focused design efforts. As such the efforts for the initial launch would be around the summary generation from the list view to be used for social content and as well on the video detail pages themselves adding overview’s and clip highlights. Ultimately as well rather than a full page experience it was decided to let users have a more nested experience placement of AI as to not remove the user too far from the page.

Interaction Design

During the design process, which focused on summary generation, highlight clip creation, and blog post composition, we carefully examined the most effective interaction design patterns within the OpenAI technology framework. Our comprehensive review aimed to pinpoint the best practices for generative content creation and modification, with a particular focus on blogs.

Two leading platforms, Descript and Notion, emerged as prime examples. Both employ an intuitive quick action bar that appears upon highlighting text, offering a range of AI-powered options. This not only showcases their AI capabilities but also guides users seamlessly through the content creation process. The images above illustrate two distinct blog generation use cases: one with a pre-filled prompt, the other with a customizable input field. Our platform ultimately adopted a hybrid approach, combining the strengths of both to optimize the user experience

Design

The implimentation of AI was structured around the main business goals of meeting the needs of our customers: Video summaries (using AI to provide the summary’s and to prompt further), Blog creation (content generation), and & Video highlights (AI identified most valuable moments).

Solution

This elevated AI solution empowered users to not only obtain accurate and concise summaries of the videos within their library but also to leverage the power of AI-driven prompts for generating creative ideas. With the ability to easily transform video transcripts into engaging social media posts, blog articles, and other forms of content, users unlocked a wealth of possibilities for repurposing and maximizing the value of their video content.

Video detail page with AI highlights

This provided the solution for users to get accurate summaries of the video’s within their library, ability to prompt and utilise and extend the content into creating things like social blogs from the transcripts.

Video summarisation

This capability solved for users wanting to get effective summaries to help inform how they wanted to utilise the video.

Blog creation

This gave users the capability to use the AI assistant to help extend the videos content into text form, adding increased value to each video output.

Outcome

In early 2024, Vouch launched a suite of AI features designed to streamline user workflows, amplify customer results, and drive new business growth. The redevelopment focused on enhancing core capabilities like blog creation, content summarization, and video highlights.

Since its soft launch in mid-2024, Vouch's AI has attracted 84 new customers, with new features rolling out monthly. The platform's editor has also been expanded, and AI-powered editing is on the horizon.

The result is a revitalized Vouch platform that empowers users to create exceptional video content. The platform is now more intuitive, making it easier for customers to embrace Vouch's mission of collecting, creating, and sharing professional videos.