AI traps: Lessons from launching Webflow's AI Assistant

Tom, the tech lead for Webflow's Applied AI team, reflects on the development journey of their latest AI feature, the AI Assistant, which was launched during the public beta at Webflow Conf 2024. The AI Assistant, whose main skill currently involves generating new sections for Webflow sites, was a product of extensive effort by the newly-formed team and resulted in a successful launch exceeding expectations with a high product-market fit score. However, the development process faced unique challenges and setbacks inherent to AI projects, such as overestimating AI capabilities and being overly optimistic about demo results. These issues often pushed the project towards a slower, waterfall-style development rather than quick, iterative progress. Despite these hurdles, the team managed to overcome various "AI traps" and is now equipped with the necessary infrastructure and knowledge to expand on the AI Assistant's capabilities in the future.