Upside Innovation, Technology & Agility

How is your team integrating AI and ML into the product development process, and what specific improvements have you seen as a result?

Upside is integrating AI, specifically GitHub Copilot, into its product development process, focusing on enhancing developer productivity and velocity. Data has shown that our developers using Copilot are 56 percent more productive and complete tasks 36 percent faster than those not using the AI tool. For example, a project that would typically take 100 days can now be completed in 64 days with Copilot. These improvements have directly contributed to faster product delivery, which in turn positively impacts our revenue and profit.

What strategies are you employing to ensure that your systems and processes keep up with the rapid advancements in AI and ML?

To keep up with rapid AI and ML advancements, we allocate resources to internal research and development teams to explore and prototype new applications, ensuring we stay ahead of the competition and integrate the latest AI innovations for better user experiences and operational efficiencies. Additionally, we prioritize upskilling our teams through training sessions and demos and provide access to cutting-edge resources, keeping our teams up to date with the latest technologies and fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

Can you share some examples of how AI and ML have directly contributed to enhancing your product line or accelerating time-to-market?

One example of how AI is poised to enhance Upside’s product line is our ongoing work on AI-powered semantic search for our app. We’re focused on significantly improving the user experience by shifting from simple keyword matching to understanding the intent behind a user’s search. This AI-powered search will allow users to enter natural language queries, such as, “I want a salad, but my kids want pizza,” and receive results that match the meaning and context of their requests. It will support multiple languages, handle spelling errors and interpret user needs with high accuracy. 

We anticipate this improvement will directly impact user engagement by helping people find what they need more effectively, increasing offer claim rates and reducing frustration and churn. Once launched, this will be Upside’s first AI-powered feature that directly benefits the end user and will help accelerate time to market by leveraging vector databases and AI embedding models for faster, more relevant search results.