Studies have become a vital aspect of various aspects of our daily lives, yet many of them tend to be dull, yielding ineffective outcomes and responses. Dingan Shen and Yuan Xue, two software engineers based in Silicon Valley, recognized an opportunity to leverage advancements in large vocabulary models to make surveys more engaging and captivating.
Approximately six months ago, Shen and Xue, who have been friends since high school, established Trove AI, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that allows users to create conversational surveys utilizing GPT-4 and its custom-tailored models. This innovative startup received initial funding from Zayd Enam and Tim Shi, former colleagues of Shen at Cresta, a venture supported by a16z that enhances call center agents’ capabilities through AI.
The initial version of Trove, launched just six weeks ago, has already garnered over 1,000 users, predominantly comprising small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide. A significant number of users have already submitted multiple surveys since the platform’s release. Despite still being in the free-to-use phase, Trove has attracted a diverse user base, including businesses in London, educational institutions in Boston, and organizations focusing on the Latin American market.
In the current era of ChatGPT apprehension, the application of conversational AI to surveys appears to be a straightforward approach. Market research-focused companies like Qualtrics have integrated AI into their suite of products for gathering customer and employee feedback. Similarly, Survey Monkey, a prominent survey platform for small and medium-sized businesses, is utilizing AI to streamline survey creation processes.
Shen envisions Trove evolving into a comprehensive “customer and employee experience management system” catering to businesses of all scales. The core functionality of the platform revolves around managing interactions with clients, employees, products, and more. In light of OpenAI’s recent policy changes affecting its API services, products built on ChatGPT are reassessing their heavy reliance on third-party APIs.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Shen emphasized that Trove operates on an “80% SaaS and 20% AI” model, emphasizing the platform’s substantial intrinsic value beyond its OpenAI integration. The platform offers an AI-driven feedback loop that facilitates tasks ranging from survey creation, response analysis, and solution formulation to CRM integration.
The integration of CRM capabilities would empower Trove to generate highly personalized surveys, automatically create tickets based on responses, and send tailored follow-up emails to acknowledge customer feedback. Shen articulated that the company is fundamentally reshaping experience management workflows by leveraging the capabilities of advanced language models available today.
