He Built Uber Eats to $25B, Now He's Pushing AI Beyond Chat | Stephen Chau
Apr 6, 2025
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Stephen Chau, co-founder of Cove and former architect of Uber Eats, delves into transformative AI concepts. He discusses the innovative generative UI that redefines user interaction with AI, making it more natural than chatbots. Stephen shares insights on how Cove enhances travel planning and provides tailored recommendations, showcasing AI's dynamic capabilities. He also reveals the secret to scaling Uber Eats and emphasizes that product managers must adapt and engage with AI tools for success in the evolving tech landscape.
Cove's generative UI transforms traditional interfaces by allowing real-time, user-tailored workspace layouts that enhance task management and workflow.
The platform encourages collaborative interactions between users and AI, enabling co-creation of content that fosters ownership and engagement in digital spaces.
With continuous learning from user interactions, Cove offers personalized AI recommendations, making complex task navigation more intuitive and efficient.
Deep dives
Generative UI as a New Approach
Cove introduces a generative UI designed to create workspace layouts tailored to user tasks. This approach aims to facilitate task management by breaking down problems and guiding users through their workflows. By adapting features based on user input, Cove effectively streamlines processes, such as planning a trip by providing relevant suggestions and creating itineraries. This real-time construction of the workspace makes the experience more intuitive and dynamic compared to traditional fixed interfaces.
Co-creation and Collaboration
Cove emphasizes a collaborative environment where users can co-create content rather than relying solely on AI-generated outputs. For instance, users can add or modify items within their workspace directly, fostering a sense of ownership and interactivity. The platform allows for concurrent participation, enabling multiple users to engage simultaneously while utilizing AI assistance. This model mirrors natural human collaboration, encouraging iterative idea development in a shared digital space.
Empowering Users with Contextual Insights
Cove is designed to learn from user interactions and contextual information, allowing for personalized assistance and recommendations. As tasks are defined, the AI can suggest additional features or information that might enhance the user experience. An example includes building itineraries, where the introduction of user preferences automatically updates related content, improving the relevance and accuracy of suggestions. This continuous learning process helps users navigate complex tasks more efficiently.
AI Apps Within a Collective Workspace
The platform enables users to create AI applications directly within the workspace, streamlining tasks that require more than traditional input methods. Users can add various content types, including text, images, and videos, which enrich the workspace context and support app creation. The AI can then leverage this content to generate quizzes or visualizations, enhancing the overall functionality of the platform. This innovation empowers users to develop tools tailored to their specific needs without needing extensive coding skills.
The Future of AI Collaboration
Cove aims to evolve the interaction between users and AI into a collaborative partnership rather than just a tool. As AI technology progresses, the potential for more complex interactions will continue to grow, allowing AI to take on more responsibilities in user-driven processes. This transformation envisions a workspace that dynamically reshapes itself based on ongoing tasks, making it an adaptable environment. The ultimate goal is to redefine how humans interact with AI across different applications, turning it into a genuinely collaborative partner.
My guest today is Stephen Chau.Stephen is the co-founder of Cove, a Sequoia-backed startup that lets you interact with AI through a ground-breaking visual interface instead of chat. We had a great chat about why the future of AI is generative UI, how to build great AI products, and how he scaled Uber Eats from $0 to $25B.This episode is brought to you by Merge — Merge gives SaaS companies like Ramp and Drata a single API to launch over 200 product integrations fast. Book a meeting via https://www.merge.dev/peteryang and get a $50 Amazon gift card when you attend.Timestamps: (00:00) The future of AI is generative UI
(01:53) Demoing Cove's visual AI interface for trip planning
(05:02) Beyond chatbots: Co-creating with AI in a natural way
(09:01) Context-aware AI that updates content automatically
(11:11) Putting AI to the test to list premium Japanese snacks
(14:02) Building AI apps directly within your workspace
(16:35) Demoing real world use cases for visual AI interfaces
(27:39) Generative UI and just-in-time AI apps
(31:16) Why chatbots are the "DOS stage" of AI interfaces
(45:44) The secret to building Uber Eats to $25B
(54:51) The best way to build your AI product senseGet the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/he-built-uber-eats-now-pushing-ai-beyond-chat-stephen-chauWhere to find Stephen:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenchau/Website: https://cove.ai/📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!
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