On February 4, the leading SaaS company Zoho Corporation announced the launch of Zia Agents, Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace, further expanding its own AI platform, Zia. Businesses will be able to access, create, and implement intelligent, self-governing digital agents throughout their organisations thanks to these new capabilities.
Pre-built, task-specific Zia Agents will be made available for preview by Zoho and its IT management business, ManageEngine, starting today. In the upcoming weeks, the firm plans to roll them out across its range of more than 100 products, according to a release.
“The pace of disruption and quality of innovation we are seeing in our industry right now has encouraged me to focus on my passion area, technology,” said Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and chief scientist of Zoho Corporation. “I will lead a number of extensive R&D projects for the company, starting with AI, and dedicate more time to practical technical work.”
He continued by saying that the brand would create strong and practical solutions that increase customer value while upholding our dedication to customer flexibility and data privacy by leveraging Zoho’s extensive engineering experience, its own data centres, and its shared data model.
Zoho Spreading its Wings
The company’s core AI, Zia, was introduced in 2015, and it allows for contextual and intelligent activities throughout its app ecosystem. Ask Zia, a system-wide conversational assistant that improved workflows by summarising interactions, evaluating trends, and automating activities, was introduced by Zoho in 2018.
Zoho is now extending its AI capabilities with Zia Agents, showcasing a number of pre-built autonomous agents that will be rolled out in the upcoming months, including an Account Manager Agent, SDR Agent, HR Agent, Customer Support Agent, IT Help Desk Agent, and SalesCoach Agent.
Zia Agent Studio
Additionally, Zoho will launch Zia Agent Studio, a platform that enables clients, partners, and developers to create and implement unique AI agents with inherited skill sets. These agents may then be made available through Zoho’s Agent Marketplace for broader use.
Zia Agent Studio, which is intended for low-code and no-code development, gives customers access to pre-built Zia Skills, Zoho’s ecosystem tools, unified data, and many language models in addition to enabling them to construct autonomous agents that are pertinent to their needs.
Organisations may access, deploy, and reuse specialised AI agents by publishing agents created using Zia Agent Studio on the Agent Marketplace. While partners and developers can contribute bespoke agents tailored to certain company needs, Zoho will provide a pre-built roster of agents.
This announcement coincides with Zoho’s record-breaking expansion, which saw the company gain 110,000 new clients worldwide in 2024, reaching 850,000+ enterprises across all industries. A small number of clients will be the first to get access to the new AI features, with availability growing every month.
AI is no longer a future concept, it is happening now. Technology has evolved a lot and is still growing rapidly. AI has fueled growth by making tasks easier and faster. Dall-E and MidJourney, both are AI-based text-to-image generators that hold the capability to generate mind-blowing digital images just by taking input from you.
Isn’t it fascinating that you’re just typing something and AI is providing you with the desired images? Actually, it’s really cool stuff to explore and learn.
Both Dall-E and MidJourney do the same thing which is to generate images from the user query, but certain factors differentiate these two. Here in this article, we will compare Dall-E and MidJourney, so read the whole article and update your knowledge with the latest technology.
AI Image Generators have become the next big thing on the internet. As both are best-known and arguably the most advanced image generators, both of them have the potential to provide you with great results.
Let us look into the different aspects such as their development, pricing, art quality and others. of MidJourney and DALL-E to compare and decide which one is the best among these two.
Development Journey
Dall-E is an AI system developed by OpenAI, a research laboratory headquartered in san-Fransisco. OpenAI was started by Sam Altman and others in late 2015 to develop AI-based solutions that solve different tasks and make human life much easier. Dall-E is one of the AI solutions by OpenAI that renders services for image creation.
It is a large language model that was trained on a dataset of text and images, which can generate images from text descriptions, a process known as image generation or image synthesis. It is a 12-billion-parameter version that uses text-image data sets to generate an image from text.
On the other hand, MidJourney is also an AI-based solution developed by an independent research lab that renders the same services as Dall-E does. Since the intention behind the development of AI is the same, which is to train the AI and make them capable of solving complex real-life problems with ease.
MidJourney has emerged as a solution that creates realistic images of any input you provide. It is in the beta phase and continuously learning and upgrading with new features and capabilities. To save the interest of Artists, MidJourney also included DMCA takedown policy in their terms of service. This will empower the artists to request the removal of any art piece if they feel it is violating copyright.
Performance and Capabilities
Dall-E
A lot of training with datasets undergoes to train the system to consistently improve the performance and capabilities. Dall-E uses text descriptions in natural language to create high-resolution images and art pieces. Different attributes, concepts, and styles are mixed and matched to deliver the best results and performance.
Dall-E edit
On the 6th of April 2022, OpenAI launched the upgraded form of Dall-E with the name Dall-E 2. The concept of photorealism became more advanced and efficient with Dall-E 2 which can create realistic art using the data in the caption. The functionality of creating an image is general in Dall-E 2, but on top of that, it can also add some extra information on the existing image and also create different variations of the given images on the basis of the input you provide.
Dall-E uses a technology called Clip (Contrastive language image pre-training) for digital photosynthesis, which is developed by OpenAI. It helps to match the images with their corresponding caption in the best possible way, in simple words it works on text and image pairs. The process of text embedding and image embedding takes place to produce the best result from the given caption.
MidJourney
On the other hand, MidJourney also offers great performance and provides high-quality realistic art from natural language commands. By continuously upgrading the technology and removing the flaws in the system, MidJourney has evolved its capabilities a lot from Version 1 to Version 4.
Every week and month, it releases some updates in the system that further improves the efficiency of the AI. If you compare the results produced by the previous version with the latest version, the image details in the latest version are top-notch with more clarity.
In the previous version if you search “Alien spaceship over the futuristic city”, you’ll find the image with the spaceship but the placement of the spaceship was not well, even the futuristic city was also looking somehow messy. The latest version improved these flaws, now if you search for the same query, you’ll find a picture in which the spaceship is hovering over the city and even the city also looks much more realistic.
Hence, the performance and capabilities of both AI-based systems are pretty much similar and deliver the best result in creating high-quality images.
Quality of Art
Creating an image undoubtedly becomes easy with Dall-E and MidJourney, both deliver exceptional quality and still improving with different updates. Here we have compared the quality of Art created by Dall-E and MidJourney. We have passed the same input which is ” ships sailing in a stormy sea” and get the below result.
Comparison in Art Quality of Dall-E and MidJourney
The left-hand image is created by MidJourney which looks clear and detailed, it recognizes the query very well and renders each keyword efficiently to provide the result. A stormy sea looks cool in the first image with every minute detail like the atmosphere is harmonized with the image providing a look of stormy weather.
On the other hand, Dall-E has also generated the image of ships in stormy weather, but the image looks simple compared to the MidJourney image. The weather is normal and there is not much effect of the storm visible. It looks like ships in the sea and nothing more.
Hence, we can say that MidJourney is more precise and accurate in creating images compared to Dall-E. But still, they are in the beta phase and continuously evolving, so it’s too early to judge the quality.
User Interface and Accessibility
Dall-E
In order to use the Dall-E you need to create an account with OpenAI by visiting their official website and clicking on the signup button. You can choose your email address and password to create an account or simply use your existing Gmail account to create an account with OpenAI. After that, you also need to verify your mobile number to continue further.
Once you complete your signup process, you will get 50 credits for free in your account in the first month and also get 15 credits every month, which you can use for creating an image in Dall-E. Now you’re ready to generate images from a description of natural language.
In the search bar, you can input your imagination via query and the algorithm automatically generates the best outcome based on your search query. Mix and match the images and try different variations to get the best result from your search. You can also upload an image and suggest any changes to it through your command to create a unique piece of art.
MidJourney
MidJourney is currently operating on the discord server only, so to use MidJourney you need an account on the discord. First of all, you need to visit the website of MidJourney and click on the join beta program. After this, you need to accept an invite to the discord server from MidJourney. Now open your discord app and click on the boat shape icon of MidJourney, you can join any newcomer room with the name “newbie”.
Use the prompt /imagine and start creating images from your imagination and get the result from MidJourney. The more precisely you give the input into the command the more accurate result you’ll get. You can also upload your image and apply different variations to it, this will change your existing image to a new modified image based on the changes you want.
Price Comparison
Dall-E
When you just signup in OpenAI, you’ll get 50 credits for free to generate images in Dall-E and also get 15 credits every month. On top of that, you can purchase additional 115 credits for $15 if you are out of credit. This credit will get utilized every time you hit a search prompt and try different variations.
Suppose you enter a search query “A girl looking at the moon at night” and hit the generate button. This will create some pictures for you, if you select any picture and try out different variations of the picture then also your credit will get utilized. In this example, one credit is used when you generated an image and one credit is used when you tried out a variation, hence you consumed two credits from your account.
MidJourney
The pricing plan for MidJourney is a little bit confusing for beginners as compared to Dall-E because it contains several plans and uses algorithms. Let’s compare each of them one by one, but before comparing the plan you need to be clear about certain terminologies like fast GPU time, relaxed GPU time, and private visibility.
Fast GPU time: Whenever you enter any prompt for an image creation it will take GPU resources to render the image, the time taken by the GPU to render the image depends on the complexity, details, quality, and more. So fast GPU mode reduces the time to render the images and gives the output as fast as possible.
Relaxed GPU time: In relaxed mode, GPU doesn’t take your work as a priority and takes its time to render the image.
Private Visibility: your created images are visible to the public unless you put them into private. Your images will be on the server but visible only to you.
Free trial: when you sign up in MidJourney for the first time you will get 25 min/Lifetime fast GPU time. If one image generation takes around 1 minute of time then you can generate 25 images for free with this plan. Keep in mind that every time you generate an image or variation, it will take GPU, hence you’ll be charged minutes while generating a new image and also while creating a variation.
Relaxed GPU time and private visibility are not provided in the free plan.
Basic: You’ll charge $10/month when you opt for this plan. In this plan, you will get 200 min per month of fast GPU time and a personal bot Chat. Relaxed GPU time is still not available in this plan but you can opt for a private visibility feature by paying $20/month additional.
Standard:In this plan, you’ll get 15 hrs/month at $30/month inclusive of relaxed GPU time. But in this plan also you need to purchase the private visibility for $20/month if you want.
Also, for both the Basic and Standard plans you can purchase additional time if you are out for the given time in your plan. It will charge $4 for 60 minutes.
Corporate:This plan is best suited for big design companies that need to generate many art pieces and images. For $600/year, you’ll get 120 hrs/year of fast GPU time and unlimited relaxed GPU time, additionally you’ll get private visibility and a personal bot at no extra cost.
Comparison of Features
Features of Dall-E
Quick edit of the uploaded image based on the changes you want.
Different variations to explore and choose from.
Dedicated collection to store generated images in public or private folders.
Full usage right to commercialize the created image.
Already ensured safety before launching the beta version of Dall-E.
Features of MidJourney
Anyone can join the beta program by using the discord link.
Different variations and high-quality images.
Diversified pricing plans.
Availability of Fast and relaxed mode.
Can upload an image and make changes.
Conclusion
AI has made work easier and effortless, but still, this technology is evolving and developing. Dall-E and MidJourney both of them are outstanding AI tools that help to generate realistic images through natural language. So, join their beta program and explore the new height of AI.
FAQ
Which is better DALL-E or MidJourney?
DALL-E creates more real-looking images whereas MidJourney is more on different art styles.
Can you use DALL-E images for free?
DALL-E 2 is currently free to use, but there is a catch. For the first month, you are allotted 50 free credits to use and 15 free credits after that.
What type of AI is MidJourney?
MidJourney is an independent research lab that produces a proprietary artificial intelligence program under the same name that creates images from textual descriptions, similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.
How does MidJourney actually work?
MidJourney is currently only accessible through a Discord bot on their official Discord, by direct messaging the bot, or by inviting the bot to a third-party server.
Businesses today are trying their best to leverage content marketing to its full potential. However, it is time-consuming and demands hefty budgets to execute the efforts.
The biggest hit is for lean teams that are short on budgets and workforce. Nonetheless, even bigger companies and their team want to save bucks on content marketing.
An attractive solution paving its way through the market lately is the AI writing tool. From chatbots to content creation, AI copywriting is changing the way businesses approach written communication. But are AI writing tools effective enough to generate content? Can they help businesses rank on Google? Let us first understand how AI writing tools work and see some use cases.
AI writing tools are software that runs on various technologies like NLP (Natural Language Processing) and GPT3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) to produce content as per demand.
They provide content based upon the cues that you enter into the software. It is gaining momentum, not only due to the ease it provides for content creation. It can deliver a lot of content in a short period which helps businesses save time. Now, let us understand how AI software helps with content generation.
All the AI writing tools are fundamentally similar, except a few with enhanced utility, such as more formats or a more extensive database.
They give two basic options: Content generation from scratch or content enhancement/spinning. These options are available in various formats such as blogs, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts, Instagram bio, tweets, captions, Ad copies, email copies, etc.
You choose the required option and format. Then, you enter basic details such as title and details regarding the content such as tone, target audience, description, etc.
AI then goes through the data on the internet and provides content in the desired format within a few minutes. However, the most significant loophole with these writing tools is limited data availability in the software and internet. Being software, it has access to restricted data available on the internet beyond which it can not curate content.
So, in a nutshell, AI writing tools can curate but not create content for businesses. So, business goals like building thought leadership are not possible. A way to deal with this issue is adding input yourself but that increases the workload. Marketers tried to use AI writing tools on various occasions. The result seems to vary depending upon the use case.
Use Cases of AI Writing Tools
Here are some use cases that AI writing tools provide.
Blog Posts (Short-Long)
Many companies wish to use AI tools strictly for creating blogs as it is expensive and time-consuming to get it done by a content marketing team. However, it is noticed that these tools are better at curating short form instead of long content.
Long-form content requires immense effort from the user regarding the blog sections and giving cues. Contrarily, short-form content has better quality but still requires human assistance.
Product Description
This is another common use case of AI writing tools. In this case, brands generally put in some keywords and get 200-250 word descriptions that can be added on Amazon or the website.
AI tools do a great job at this. Why? Product descriptions are template-based content. AI can effortlessly adapt to this with basic settings. Hence, it provides quality content that can rank on Google.
Email Copies
AI writing tools also help with email copies for onboarding email templates or day-to-day emails. They provide a mediocre copy that might lack the human touch. However, it is great for generating headlines and subject lines for emails.
Many brands have recorded improved open rates and conversions with AI-generated email copies. But again, it requires a lot of human intervention for segmenting and curating compelling copies.
Landing Page Content
AI tools are used to write landing page content. It is so because these tools identify specific words and phrases that can trigger different emotions in the readers. The results generated are viable but need additional editing from your end.
It offers better results but can not surpass a copy written by an experienced copywriter. Thus, AI caters to businesses aiming at bulk content production where quality overpowers quantity. Nonetheless, it is hard to generate quality content using AI writing tools without human interference.
Cold Email Messages
It is crucial to crack cold emailing for companies that reach out to thousands of prospects a month. AI tools and software act as an aiding tool for them by curating a personalized, appealing message with little input.
AI algorithms study the prospect socials/ website to give a personalized cold email. It has a better conversion rate and saves time personalizing every email/ message.
There are many more use cases but these are the basic and most common ones.
AI writing tools try to get an edge by providing more use cases and better utility than other alternatives. Some of the best AI writing tools are,
Jasper (Jarvis)
Articoolo
Copy AI
Anyword
Smartwriter (For cold emails)
Rytr.me
Growthbar
Peppercontent.ai
Now, let us quickly sum up the pros and cons of AI writing tools. It will give a clear picture of whether AI tools are worth spending on. You need to consider your priorities and make an investment accordingly.
AI writing tools can generate more content in less time. Case studies show that people were able to generate 30,000 words of content per day. It is impossible to generate that much content with normal budgets and manpower.
Writing Assistant
AI tools can assist you in researching, writing, and editing your content piece. While they are effective with research and editing, AI writing tools need algorithm updates to be effective. They save a lot of time as compared to the manual effort and improve content accuracy.
Generate Ideas
AI writing tools help you generate more ideas and structure your thoughts. You need to add a cue to the text generator and it fills the gap. This content can not be a final draft but gives your thoughts a direction.
Minimal Errors
AI tools assure minimal errors on factual or grammatical grounds. Since they operate on set algorithms, there is a little window for errors. However, at times these algorithms might give an incorrect recommendation that requires human judgment.
No More Writer’s Block
As mentioned above, AI tools help generate ideas and structure thoughts, it enables writers to leverage it to mend writers’ block. At times it is hard to structure ideas and AI tools help you with that.
Content Enhancement
AI tools mean limited plagiarism. Since, the tool work on set algorithms, the content generated is spun in a way that there is zero plagiarism. However, after a point, the AI produces similar content which might be an issue for niche websites/ content teams.
Cons of AI Writing Tools
Expensive
AI tools are expensive. However, if compared to regular budgets that deploy people to do the same job, it saves a lot of money. But provided that AI tools need a human brain to make them useful, their effectiveness is questionable.
Lack of Human Touch
A machine can not produce content similar to that of a human. Often the content produced is robotic and does not serve the purpose. Hence, it is a great pick for companies with directory-based content that works on a set template.
Requires Manpower
AI tools need the intervention of a human which again adds to the cost. If the aim is to save time and money, there might be other added hidden costs that businesses need to bear.
Mechanical Content
AI content lacks a natural flow. No amount of input or algorithm update can add natural flow to AI-generated content. The content is repetitive and needs additional input. It is great for SEO optimization as it seamlessly adds the required keywords and optimizes effortlessly.
Not Apt for Long-form Content
AI tools are not effective when generating long-form content. They require more inputs from the user which increases the burden. The AI should simplify the task and not add to redundant tasks.
Lack of Uniqueness
Since AI depends solely on data available on the internet to produce the content, the content produced is not unique. It is plagiarism free but has no unique viewpoint. Hence, such content is often hard to rank due to a lack of authenticity.
Are AI Writing Tools Worth Your Investment?
AI writing tools are not the best investment for a majority of companies. Well, it also depends upon the need of each business. If you aim at short-form templatized content, it might be the best purchase.
Also, If you deal with time and money constraints, the AI tools will assist you in writing. However, It cannot generate content at a single command. It needs human assistance in form of inputs, proofreading and editing, and further factual and plagiarism check.
Alone it can not produce organic content but can work as a great tool to assist and give direction. Also, you can not generate fresh content that is content for news or event-based sites as AI has access to restricted data available on the internet. So, this concludes that AI writers cannot replace copywriters.
Conclusion
If you want, you can make the AI tools work for you. But just like any other machine. without input, they are software with no use case.
FAQs
Are AI writing tools worth it?
If you want to write short-form content in a short time then it might be worth it.
Will AI replace copywriters?
No, AI writing tools cannot replace copywriters because they can’t understand emotions and they cannot produce content similar to humans.
Which is the best AI writing tool?
Some of the best AI writing tools are Rytr, Jasper, Surfer, QuillBot, Grammarly, and CopyAI.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that is fascinating and interesting as well and which is constantly on its way to transforming the world. Gone are the days, where AI was just a part of a sci-fi movie, now has become a reality in which we live.
People have started adopting Artificial Intelligence into their business, from hospitality to advertising to the healthcare industry, AI is ruling the market. Various businesses and organizations are taking a part in this industry to upgrade them and make their work easier.
When we talk about artificial intelligence, it basically means a machine that has human-like intelligence, which can perform all those tasks that a human can do, maybe much more than that. Artificial Intelligence has also embarked on a journey where now it can use for writing as well.
We are living in a world, that AI for writing doesn’t seem like something impossible. In this article, we will find out if AI writing tools are worth using for blogs or not. So let’s get started with the first and foremost thing.
“AI as a technology is complex, of course, but the capabilities and benefits of AI aren’t hard to understand.”
AI for writing is nothing but Artificial Intelligence technology that looks into big data sets to write in a natural language and in the desired format. This technology can generate texts and create content for you just like a human, not only that you get to have long content.
Different algorithms are used to understand what the users want as its content and, it can also deal with SEO. AI is becoming smarter and it might replace professionals in the future.
AI writing tools are used for:
Blogs
Essays
Articles
How does AI Writing Tools Works?
Two technologies that are deep learning and natural language processing are included in this process, deep learning tries to work like a brain of a human and the NLP tries to examine and use the language just like the way a human uses it.
The technology understands and learns the meaning of the words so that they can structure sentences for the content when the users put all the data that are necessary for it, like the format of the content and its length.
The steps how an AI writings work are:
The technology use algorithms to understand the meaning of the words.
After finding the meaning of the words, the data is transformed into texts.
Advantages of AI Writing
People are thinking about introducing AI for writing because it has an upper hand that is extremely intriguing and helpful, which are:
AI writers can write anything, one just needs to insert some data and the work will be done. It can even convey emotions by writing a poem. In 2011, an AI robot writer was created that wrote a poem.
AI writers can write ad campaigns for blogs and the best part is once you get an AI writer, there is no need to pay the other writers for their services and you also don’t need to spend any other expenses on them, as AI writers are going to the job.
Errors are almost non-existent as data once put into them; through algorithms, they can create the almost perfect content.
AI can create high-level and sophisticated content way faster than human writers.
AI can create logical content regarding any subject and has various worldwide ideas as they are versatile in nature.
AI copywriters can go beyond generating copy with AI copywriting tools.Nowadays, AI isn’t just used for copywriting, but also for analyzing copy. For example, AI copywriting platform Anyword can predict how each copy variation will perform even before a campaign starts. It also determines what kinds of ads appeal to which type of audience, defines the emotional tone of copy, and so much more.
Disadvantages of AI Writing
If something has its advantages, it is bound to have disadvantages as well. There are some limitations that AI writing has and those are:
AI writing may start creating content that is low quality which is not good for the image of an organization.
Fake contents are easier to provide through AI, once it started spreading, it can lead to a bigger mess, which will also tarnish the image of the organization.
One of the greatest fears related to AI is that it will start replacing humans in jobs, which will lead to a risk of unemployment.
Sometimes AI may create content that can have a lot of inaccuracies as it is derived from all the publications that can be found on the internet.
AI Writers for Blog Writing
Blog writing is a very time-consuming task, AI writers will help in creating high-quality blogs that will also work in attracting the attention of the audience through good content. It collects information from all over the internet and uses them, through that they can also create new ideas.
AI writers for blogs have many pros and cons, some of the pros are that it creates engaging and relevant content in a very quick time for the audience. On the other hand, the cons included the loss of human touch in a blog and it may also lack originality. Definitely, it saves money and time, plus it is said to be a one-time investment.
AI creates content that is not biased and is based on facts that can be found on the internet. AI Writer may not fully replace a content writer but will be better for any organization to have a versatile source that will be able to coexist with a human content writer.
What are the Best AI Writers?
Some of the best artificial intelligence content generators that can help you in writing blogs and articles are:
With artificial intelligence emerging and increasing its popularity in every sector, blogging will also be a great option where one can use AI writers for creating content. People have witnessed the technological advancement that is happening all over the world and it is just a matter of time when AI will make its presence known in every sector and including blogging as well.
FAQ
Can AI writing tools write Blog Posts?
Yes, AI writing tools can write blog posts.
Is AI Copywriting Worth it?
Yes, it is definitely worth it as it is cheaper than hiring an actual copywriter.
What are the best AI Writers?
Article Forge, Jarvis, and Rytr are some of the best AI writers.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verifiedinformation ondifferent startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Builder.ai
Builder.ai is a human-assisted AI that empowers everyone to independently build and operate tech products through two products that work together to be their virtual engineering team. Builder.ai is on a mission to turn ideas into developed products for everyone. Whether you want to build something new or are already operating on the cloud, they empower a single user to achieve more by doing less; and that’s why it says: Build. Run. Scale.
Builder.ai offers a platform for entrepreneurs and enterprises to build, run and scale any idea, no knowledge of coding required. They help the world’s best ideas transform into great innovations that in turn support and enhance the work of entrepreneurs and businesses.
Building software can often prove to be complex, risky and inefficient. They level the playing field for companies that recognise the importance of having an online presence, but don’t have the technical knowledge to bring it to life. They believe that software development should be simple, immediate and efficient to make all kinds of ideas a reality.
Its human-assisted-AI platform lets one create on-demand, tailor-made software using a library of reusable features and a network of verified expert talent from around the world. Their recently launched and globally-recognised platform Studio Store, has been helping SMBs and SMEs amid COVID-19 to access quality software at lower costs and in most cases is delivered to them in 8-10 weeks. Just a few weeks ago, they were awarded at CognitionX 2020 for “Best COVID-19 Innovation for Recovery” and chosen as “the Hottest Startup – AI” at The Europas.
Builder.ai- Founders
Builder.ai is founded by Sachin Dev Duggal & Saurabh Dhoot.
Builder.ai Founders | Saurabh Dhoot & Sachin Dev Duggal
Saurabh and Sachin first met when they were both pursuing their engineering at Imperial College London. As founders, their roles are thorough: going and run right from the big picture down to microscopic detail. Therefore, both of the founders oversee different functions- from strategy to execution- pretty smoothly. Sachin sees it as the beauty of working with his best friend, Saurabh. Not too long ago, they had also co-founded Nivio, a cloud computing startup, taking it to $100mn in evaluation and exiting it after a major strategic sale in 2012.
Their partnership doesn’t end there. Saurabh and Sachin are also passionate about breakthrough technological innovations that have the potential to enhance society and environment. They are also working to bring necessary education to 100 million children within the next 50 years. Their projects keep growing.
How was Builder.ai Started
Four years ago, Builder.ai started out with a dream to be the connection between every great idea and a fully realized product. The ideology behind Bulider.ai was to empower everyone to build their ideas, regardless of their understanding of code. To achieve this, they went back to the drawing board on how software is made today. They looked at best practices across industries, naming-ly what Henry Ford did for the automotive industry with the assembly line.
They are applying this methodology to custom software by employing a human assisted AI to the software assembly line. This system brings together building blocks of frequently used features – such as Facebook login or shopping cart – alongside the best human talent from across the globe to work directly with the customer and ensure the software is built on time without errors.
They started their journey from there and the premise was to make software development accessible to anyone, anywhere. It stemmed from the belief that everyone should be able to unlock their true potential, to make their vision come to life irrespective of what they know, what they have and what they are potentially afraid of.
Builder.ai- Company Size & Work Culture
Builder.ai expanded from 30 employees to over 250 in just 2 years and now has offices in London, Los Angeles, Delhi, Dubai and Tokyo. This level of rapid global expansion had the potential to cause severe rifts in communication; something that wasn’t so much of an issue when it was just a few of them working together. Builder.ai is going through an exciting phase where they are seeing quick yet strategic growth, supporting both active digital markets and those that are ripe for digital transformation.
They work from different parts of the world and the solution to most business challenges is teamwork and constant alignment on goals making ‘precise communication’. A consistent transfer of knowledge and transparency across departments became a priority, so that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.
Sachin believes having inspirational leadership figures that keep their teams in the know and constantly empowered is critical to this. Video touch-bases, Slack messaging, project management tools are key to successful day-to-day communication, especially nowadays. Besides this, they ensure sending-out department-wide emails regularly, and conducting global town halls each quarter.
Builder.ai- Name, Logo and Tagline
When Sachin and Saurabh founded the company in 2016, they named it Engineer.ai with 2 essential products – DevOps and CloudOps. As Engineer.ai, they did some exemplary work with some of the best brands across the world. They built software that could solve all kinds of problems. Halfway through 2018 they decided to review their identity and conduct a branding activity and in early 2019 brought on board one of the best global creative agencies in London to support.
Builder.ai Logo
They wanted to simplify their brand to directly correlate and connect with its product offerings and their customers. That branding session led us to a huge realisation – that a lot of their customers were finding it confusing to deal with three different identities – DevOps, CloudOps and Engineer.ai. They learned that the name ‘Engineer.ai’ as a product in itself wasn’t effective. People aren’t simply looking for an engineer, instead, they’re looking for someone to help them build their dreams.
Hence, they renamed it as Builder.ai and the interpretation is quite simple: they don’t just build software. They help companies build phenomenal, revolutionary, business altering ideas.
Builder.ai- Industry Details
India has established approximately 48 million small businesses over the past decade, nearly double the number of the US. However, unlike the US, most businesses in India are hesitant to invest in digital transformation due to a lack of tech expertise, resources or both. For a country like India, that is the fastest-growing trillion-dollar economy in the world and the fifth-largest overall, a necessary shift to stay competitive is the democratisation of software development so that ideas can transcend borders, compete in the global market and take India to number one.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further nudged Indian decision makers to escalate their focus on harnessing technology in various sectors. Today consumers and businesses are utilizing online channels to promote their products and services and this is helping the country’s tech sector. Technology solutions have helped achieve key results in segments like healthcare, F&B industry, education, salons, etc. In the next 5 years, this trend will continue steadily till every business on the planet is a digital one. It is the only way to crisis-proof your business in uncertain times.
Needless to say, the market opportunity is huge. There are now 574 million active internet users in India, a growth rate of 24 per cent from 2019, according to data from consulting firm Kantar. It says India’s active number of monthly internet users are predicted to reach 639 million by the end of this year, with the coronavirus-induced lockdown a factor in this increase.
The platform brings together all the required pieces to bring to life a customer’s dream – i.e. to build, run, and scale a business. All that someone needs are an idea. Creating these apps is as simple as ordering a pizza.
For example, if you’re wanting to create an app to launch in the market. Anyone can create apps in as little as 2 weeks, by simply using Builder.ai’s Studio store by logging on it, then select a pre-packaged app template be it an e-commerce app, grocery store app, gym app or even a spa app your looking to develop, then add the features to the list (just like adding pizza toppings), you need not have any technical or coding experience, this request will then be taken up by their global pool of experts to iron out the precise ask, custom features for example and finally the app will be delivered to the partner in weeks at a fraction of the cost otherwise and to add to it, Builder.ai will provide the first three months of live service for free.
Builder.ai Everyday Phenomenal
Key Products:
Builder Studio: A unique software building interface so easy anyone can do it
Builder Care: Keeps your software updated so you’re never blindsided by 3rd party changes
Builder Cloud: Get scaled automatically with Builder Clou
Builder Now: Prototype your big idea in less than 10 mins and it’s free
Builder Studio Store: a new range of pre-packed apps – beginning with e- commerce and delivery designed to bring about digital transformation for businesses both faster and at a fraction of the cost to help the SMBs amid COVID-19
Studio Rapid: A newly launched latest no-code product offering, Studio Rapid, which enables enterprises to build fully native custom apps.
The ideation to start Builder was to empower everyone to build their ideas, regardless of their understanding of code. They started their journey from there and the premise was to make software development accessible to anyone, anywhere. It stemmed from the belief that everyone should be able to unlock their true potential, to make their vision come to life irrespective of what they know, what they have and what they are potentially afraid of.
They got together all the required pieces for their dream – i.e. to build, run, and scale a business. All that someone needs are an idea. They started with the following products including Builder Studio, Builder Care, Builder Cloud, Builder Now and since they believe in constant evolution of technology, when COVID-19 heavily impacted the businesses (specifically small and medium-sized businesses), they stepped up and launched “The Studio Store” to help all SMBs & SMEs build business apps.
This launch was part of Builder.ai’s larger mission to make the process of building a digital future more accessible, cost effective and efficient. Their mission is to give wings to the dreamers and for that its approach has always been progressive, they are constantly upgrading their product to give the best services to their clients, soon they are launching its new product to provide even better assistance.
Builder.ai- Funding
Year
Stage
Amount
Investors Name
Late 2018
Series A
$29.6 million
Lakestar, Jungle Ventures with participation from Softbank’s DeepCore
Builder.ai- Business and Revenue Model
Builder.ai was bootstrapped for a considerable period of time. Their big chunk of customers are entrepreneurs who operate in the fashion, retail and hospitality businesses, along with some enterprise technology players. They have been registering just under 100 percent growth over the last three to four years with revenues tripling during the same period.
They have also succeeded in significantly shrinking costs and timelines around software development for their customers. Some of their apps are delivered in as little as 2 weeks! Then of course, their latest no-code product offering, Studio Rapid, enables enterprises to build fully native custom apps in a day.
Nitin Konde
