For SaaS companies, demonstrating a product can be as valuable as describing it. A list of features and a series of screenshots might explain what a software product can do, but a product demonstration can show how its capabilities are used.The problem with creating these demonstrations is that it can be a time-consuming process. Someone would need to take a software product, open it, perform a series of actions to demonstrate its qualities, and potentially edit and finalize the video. This would need to be done multiple times when considering the audiences that would require different demonstrations.AI product demo generation is a field, and its applications are worth exploring. Instead of viewing a product demonstration as a recorded event, a series of these demos can become a living source of product documentation.
What Is AI Product Demo Generation?
AI product demo generation is best described as tools that rely on artificial intelligence to create demonstrations of software products. These demos can take many forms: video recordings of a certain set of instructions, interactive recordings in an online presentation, or even written documentation for common tasks.With that said, these tools are, first and foremost, used to create product demonstrations. Instead of presenting an entire product, a SaaS company would give an example of a task: making a project, setting up a configuration option, or even inviting a collaborator.AI product demo generation is the practice of turning a product into a focused, sharable experience that would educate a certain audience regarding that particular topic.
Why Product Demonstrations Matter for SaaS
The issue that these audiences share is that they require separate pieces of information to be put together to satisfy different audiences. One product demonstration that works as a marketing collateral piece will have very little practical use in a sales engineering playbook, and one that is meant for prospects might be too basic or general for current customers.AI-powered product demo generation is ideal in this scenario because it can take the one source of truth, a set of instructions, and turn them into various pieces of collateral. A recorded video can be edited and turned into an interactive demonstration for a sales representative or written instructions for a customer success manager. Instead of making two or three pieces of collateral, an AI demo tool might help turn one video into several assets applicable for different situations.
From Recorded Walkthroughs to Automated Product Demos
It should not come as a surprise that traditional product demonstrations are made by recording a series of computer actions. Someone will sit down, start a screen recording, and record a series of actions as they walk through a particular product. The recordings are then usually edited in post-production, captions and descriptions are added, and they are prepared to be used as marketing material or otherwise distributed to prospects, customers, or other interested parties.AI demo tools can handle recorded walkthroughs in one of two ways. Some of these tools streamline the post-production process, making it much faster and more accessible.Others can use a product workflow and instructions to turn it into a product demo without any recorded walkthrough at all. In other words, there is a set of instructions that one would use when introducing a product to a new user, and an AI demo tool can replicate these instructions and turn them into a product demo.As described in this article on product demo tools, Demosmith is an example of an AI demo agent. It does not rely on a recorded computer session, but rather on a product URL and a set of instructions. An AI agent then explores the software and takes instructions to highlight a set of actions taken in that product, essentially building a presentation around whatever set of instructions it is given. This, in turn, allows for the creation of multiple pieces of collateral around the product.In short, an AI demo tool can allow the product team to create marketing collateral, sales engineers to highlight certain processes relevant to their prospects, or even customer support teams to give precise instructions regarding this product.
Product Demos and Audiences
Some localization issues might occur, especially if a company has to provide similar demonstrations for customers in different markets. Not only would the instructions have to reflect a language barrier, but videos would also require voiceover and text localization.An AI demo tool is capable of doing most of these on its own, streamlining the process of providing these products to prospects and customers in different markets all over the world. This, too, means that this can reduce the amount of manual localization work, while human review remains important.
Choosing the Right Workflow
It is worth noting that AI automation will only be as good as one’s planning. A generic instruction such as “show the product” will not be as useful as a concrete set of directions: “create a project” or “show how to invite a collaborator.” Similarly, an explicit description of an intended audience will help build a much better product demonstration than “general use.”The last point to consider is the longevity of the created asset and its ability to adapt to changing conditions. SaaS products tend to change rather rapidly: new features and capabilities are added, making older demo assets/content outdated. As such, as useful as these products might be, a company should always create demos using repeatable, editable workflows.
The Changing Role of Product Demonstrations
The technology is not perfect: a well-defined purpose and an understanding of a product are crucial to creating any type of collateral. It can, however, streamline the tedious and time-consuming tasks of preparing multiple pieces of similar collateral.As SaaS companies struggle to provide multiple pieces of content to their marketing, sales, and customer success teams, AI-powered product demonstration tools can provide a reliable pipeline of collateral and assets applicable for different use cases.
