We can now add another local media and commerce player to the list of AI integrations: Nextdoor. Specifically, the company has launched a feature that helps its users generate content. We’re talking about UGC neighborhood alerts, missing cats, and other local chatter that fuels NextDoor’s UX.
Known simply as “Assistant,” the idea is to streamline the writing process for users who may not be natural writers. This is meant as both a time-saving tool and to boost user-generated content. Nextdoor also positions it as an optimization tool, trained to write in ways that boost engagement and “kindness.”
Notably, this is one example of our theory about how OpenAI will make money. All signs point to a B2B2C model where companies like Nextdoor license ChatGPT to build tools for its users to engage in various ways. This addressable market is huge as it essentially includes any consumer-facing business.
For Nextdoor, the looming question is if this is a fitting AI integration. Posts are often brief and carry the voice of the neighborhood. So it boils down to whether or not writing this content is a pain point for Nextdoor users, and if they’re open to the process being automated to a degree (more on that in a bit).
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Under the Hood
Going deeper under the hood, the Assistant feature is powered by ChatGPT. And it’s not necessarily meant to do all the heavy lifting for writing posts. Users will see suggestions for revisions as they write their posts. Think of this like Grammarly or Microsoft Office grammar checks but more conversational.
Nextdoor is also aligning the Assistant feature with its existing efforts to engender more kindness across its neighborhood feeds, as noted. People get fired up on Nextdoor talking about speed bumps & such. So the AI tool will serve as a sort of kindness filter to suggest wording that’s more cordial or diplomatic.
Beyond content generation, Nextdoor says that it’s utilizing AI to target content to users in more granular and intelligent ways. That includes recommendations for local news, events, and activities. This is basically an elevated version of the behavioral targeting that’s been practiced on social feeds for years.
As for timing, Nextdoor recognizes hastily launched AI integrations throughout the tech and media worlds, so it plans to roll out the Assistant feature slowly and carefully. It has already tested the feature with about 25 percent of its user base and will roll it out to the rest in deliberate stages.
User Generative Content
Back to the question of whether or not this is a fitting AI integration, it’s basically a matter of product market fit. We’ll see lots of experimentation with AI to zero in on what it’s good at, and where the biggest demand signals lie. And that’s what’s happening here… It could land with Nextdoor users, or it won’t.
Making all the above more challenging is an inherent challenge with hyperlocal sites like Nextdoor. It’s not running one product or market as much as it’s running thousands across every neighborhood in America. That causes its network effect to be chopped into thousands of little pieces.
We say that not to disparage Nextdoor but to commend it. The company has somehow made a marketplace model work in such a fragmented and inherently-challenged way. Many others have tried and failed to do this – from Backfence to Judy’s Book to Patch. Call it the hyperlocal graveyard.
That’s all to say that Nextdoor’s AI integration could find pockets of traction. And those will likely map to tech-forward geographies and suburbs of larger cities. Nextdoor will meanwhile gain a valuable lesson in how generative AI integrates best into its UX. After all, the G in UGC stands for “generated.”
