The other day, I found myself staring at a mountain of items I needed to list on my favorite resale marketplace app. At TribalScale, we’re embracing an AI-first mentality, so I was curious to see what would happen if I asked ChatGPT to help me create a product description. One photo upload and prompt later, and I had a perfect product description. What usually took me half an hour per item transformed into a 30-minute session where I listed six products.
This moment wasn't just a personal productivity win. It was a wake-up call about how AI is reshaping user behaviors in ways that product teams might be missing.
Your Users Are Already Living in the Future
While product teams debate about adding chatbots or implementing semantic search, users are already weaving AI tools into their daily workflows – often to solve problems with your product that you might not even know exist. They're using ChatGPT to draft emails in your communication platform, generate social media posts for your scheduling tool, or, like me, create product descriptions for your marketplace.
These improvised solutions aren't just clever workarounds – they're gold mines of product insight waiting to be discovered.
The New Product Discovery Playbook
Traditional user interviews are still valuable, but now there's a crucial question missing from most research scripts: "How are you using AI tools alongside our product?"
The answers might surprise you. That customer who always has perfectly optimized listings? They might be using GPT-4 to craft them. The team that somehow manages to write detailed bug reports? They could be using Claude to structure their feedback. These behaviors aren't edge cases – they're early signals of evolving user needs.
From Insight to Innovation: A Real-World Example
Let's return to my marketplace app experience. The current process goes something like this:
Take photos
Switch to ChatGPT
Upload photos
Get AI-generated description
Copy back to the marketplace app
Post listing
Now imagine if the marketplace integrated this capability directly. Not just with a generic AI model, but with one trained on their specific product ecosystem. The implications would be transformative:
Sellers could list items faster, increasing inventory
Descriptions would be more consistent and searchable
The platform would build an unmatched database of historical products
Buyers could finally find that "red striped Urban Outfitters sweater from 2019" they've been trying to replace
Beyond Chatbots: Rethinking AI Integration
The real opportunity with AI isn't just about adding a chatbot to your help center or implementing better search. It's about understanding how people interact with data in their decision-making processes. Your users are already telling you what they need through their creative use of AI tools – you just need to pay attention.
Consider these questions:
What data are users manually inputting that AI could help with?
Where are they copying and pasting between your product and AI tools?
What information are they struggling to find or organize?
The answers will likely point to opportunities far more valuable than another generic AI feature.
Your Next Move
Start by adding AI-focused questions to your user research. But don't stop at "Would you use an AI feature?" Instead, dig into how they're already using AI tools in their workflows. Their current behaviors will show you where the real opportunities lie.
Remember: The best AI integrations won't feel like separate features – they'll feel like your product finally works the way users always wished it did.
What creative ways are your users already employing AI alongside your product? The answer might just be the key to your next big innovation.
And if you’re looking for help seeking out these insights, TribalScale’s talented team of designers and product managers are here to help with everything you need, from user interviews to product MVPs and beyond.