This means more work for painters: more work to familiarize themselves with other tools, read documentation and follow tutorials, and even prepare for certifications, in some cases. A recent survey by Okta, the IT services control company, suggests that “application overload” is one of the biggest barriers to productivity, with 26% of painters who responded to the survey saying it makes them less effective at paintings.
A partial solution, says Yoav Einav, a Belmont-based entrepreneur, is a tool that allows users to create visual documentation (usually videos) for software integration. Einav is the co-founder and CEO of Guidde, which leverages generative AI to create embeddable video clips that explain how to use other web-based software applications.
Image Credits: Guide
Einav founded Guidde in 2020 along with Dan Sahar. In the past, both led product groups in knowledge, device learning operations, and cybersecurity at corporations such as Qwilt, an open-edge cloud startup, and Iguazio, a knowledge orchestration and control platform.
“Guidde was founded to fill an obvious gap that Sahar and I found: how to enable users to be productive and drive engagement in business-to-business applications,” Einav told TechCrunch in an email interview. “This scenario has been exacerbated as corporations have opted for more hybrid and remote work, which has seriously hampered onboarding and training. “
Guidde works by capturing a user’s in-app activity through a Chrome extension and then transforming AI recording, automation, and contextual analysis to create a video with an “AI-generated story,” as Einav describes it. Videos created through Guide can optionally feature AI-generated voice in the desired language, background music, and tags (which the platform automatically generates) that highlight key elements of a software workflow.
“Today, video creation is fragmented, time-consuming, and challenging. It often requires multiple tools, multiple people, and weeks of work to produce even a single video,” Einav said. “Guidde merges multiple point products with the power of AI to identify a single platform that allows anyone in an organization to create, edit, publish and analyze videos and documentation for any software in minutes. “
I have to say that I’m a bit skeptical of Guidde’s claims, given generative AI’s tendency to fail in even the most fundamental use cases. But in my brief tests, the platform more or less delivered on its promises.
Once the required Chrome extension is installed, you can start recording the procedure or workflow you need to capture for a documentation video. When ingesting the finished recording, Guidde automatically divides it into classified chapters, each with a description, based on the movements made during the process. recording, such as urgent buttons and browser tab changes, and generates an introductory and final voiceover.
If I were creating a lot of SaaS tutorials, you might see me using Guidde, at least as a starting point. The AI isn’t perfect, but luckily all the generated tags and descriptions can be edited before a video is posted.
Guidde also offers a simplified video editing package with effects such as motion transitions, frame sync adjustment, and cropping. If the platform’s artificial voice is suitable for customers, they can record their own to associate with the video commands.
“We think we’ve discovered a sweet spot at the intersection of PowerPoint and Loom that combines the simplicity of presentations with the engagement of video. Therefore, we appeal to the majority of corporations for whom PowerPoint is a tool they use on a daily basis, however, asynchronous video is still not widely used,” Einav stated. “A lot of groups that use Guidde upgrade existing desktops, such as Camtasia, that they use for technical video production. “
Now, Guidde may not be able to convince every would-be business consumer that its video creation platform, which is priced at $35 per user per month for medium to large teams, is a worthwhile investment. According to a 2019 Kultura survey, 67% of workers admit that they don’t give their full attention to internal educational videos, but they browse or pay attention to them while doing something else.
On the other hand, maybe that’s Guidde’s point of promotion. If workers don’t watch videos as carefully, why do employers spend so much time, energy, and money generating them?
“We’ve had a lot of conversations with workers from organizations, large and small, over the past two years,” Einav said. “Time and time again, we’ve heard the same problems: A lot of other people hate recording their own vocals and aren’t smart about it. . . It’s not the subject matter experts who create the content. . . [and] the content lacks consistency and polish as each user uses a different look, environment, voice, etc. about the disorders they faced today [and tried to solve them].
Image Credits: Guide
Guidde appears to have gained traction, with a visitor base of around 500 brands, adding Payoneer, Redis and LiveNation, with “tens of thousands” of users combined. Meanwhile, profits have risen more than 500% between last year and this year. Einav says.
Venture capital firms see potential. Guidde announced that it has raised $11. 6 million in a Series A investment circular conducted through Norwest Venture Partners with participation from Entree Capital, Honeystone Ventures, Crescendo Ventures and Tiferes Ventures, bringing the company’s total raise to $15. 6 million.
Guidde plans to use the new capital to expand its engineering and knowledge science departments while developing its marketing team, Einav said. The startup currently has 17 employees and aims to almost double this number by the end of 2024.