YodaAI

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  YodaAI Logo

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  YodaAI Mockup

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  Overview

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  Configuration Overview

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  Step 1 : Questionnaire

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  Step 2 : Completed Analysis

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  Analysis Part #2

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  Request for Procurement Example

Inspiration

Comprising of individuals from diverse backgrounds, namely Corporate Finance, Corporate Strategy, Technology, and Ventures at New York Life, our team shares a common passion for innovation. Motivated by this shared interest, we enthusiastically participated in this hackathon. Utilizing a design thinking approach and leveraging Coda’s brainstorming/idea dump template, we focused on identifying and addressing challenges within our respective domains.

Despite holding significantly different roles at New York Life, one thread we found in common across our jobs was time spent on aggregating inputs from key stakeholders we worked with, followed by significant effort required to evaluate then summarize insights into a digestible summary for consumption by others. We were confident this is not just a need that exists at our organization: companies are becoming increasingly matrixed, requiring close collaboration and input from others, which means gathering input across large groups will only become more important.

One specific challenge with the information gathering process that we identified is around Request for Proposals (RFPs) issued by large companies. Presently, vendors face the laborious task of manually completing extensive documents using Word or Excel, leading to time-consuming processes and a heightened risk of errors and version control challenges. Similarly, purchasing organizations invest significant hours in reading and scoring potential vendors, often relying on manual compilation across multiple spreadsheets.

Recognizing the need to streamlining this process, we prioritized developing a solution that showcases a more efficient and effective approach, one that not only benefits our organization but also generates substantial productivity gains for individuals. As such, we present to you -

YodaAI : An AI-enabled form that enables efficient and automatic compilation of ratings and summarization of qualitative evaluations across large groups on any topic.

What it does

Our YodaAI template offers a versatile solution with a range of functionalities. Firstly, it empowers reviewers to input both qualitative (comments, thoughts) and quantitative (ratings) data when evaluating individuals, organizations, products, or any other subject matter. This feature allows for a holistic assessment of the subject under review.

Secondly, our template leverages advanced AI capabilities to automatically aggregate input from multiple reviewers. This aggregation process results in a comprehensive analysis that considers the collective feedback. Additionally, our AI technology conducts sentiment analysis on the comments provided, providing further insights into the overall sentiment surrounding the subject. This combination of features enables a thorough and nuanced evaluation process facilitated by YodaAI.

Teams can greatly benefit from the use of Yoda AI in many ways:

1. It eliminates the need to create surveys or information-gathering templates from scratch. The template can be easily adapted, updated, or used as needed to suit any need

2. Distribution is simple, straightforward, and digital

3. It resolves data collection or comparison issues, as all data will reside in on place. This is particularly relevant when teams across an organization leverage different information-gathering platforms (e.g., Excel, Survey Monkey, Qualtrics, etc.)

4. The template is designed to provide you with instant insights through automatic compilation of quantitative ratings

5. AI-enabled evaluation and summarization of qualitative comments (which is not a feature found in any of the other information-gathering platforms) reduces the risk of manual / human error in compiling and evaluating results

How we built it

YodaAI was built through close collaboration and recognition of each of our strengths. After taking a brief period to explore the different functionalities of Coda, we quickly recognized the value it can bring as an information-gathering form. The Corporate Finance teammate who has extensive experience in coding created a wireframe that we all added functionality to, along with incremental suggestions until we arrived at a final template we felt met the necessary requirements. Additionally, the Ventures teammate provided critical examples that helped to build out details of the template, the Technology teammateS further elevated the end product through the creation of a custom logo and video avatar, and the Corporate Strategy teammate took the lead on drafting the presentation to accompany the submission.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge we ran into was in creating a form that was able to be dynamically customized via the template. Without the ability to embed a sub-table within a form, the ability to add columns to a table dynamically, the ability to reference column names dynamically, or the ability to unpivot a table dynamically, we were unable to find a way to both use the forms feature along with keeping the template configurable and dynamic to allow collection of unlimited metrics on a customized basis. As a result, we used a regular “page” for the form with logic to add rows to our collection table once the submit button is pressed.

Accomplishments that we're proud of & What we learned

Despite working together virtually and the challenges we faced, the team rapidly picked up Coda’s intuitive - and live collaboration features - to rapidly build a template in less than 72 hours. Through this experience, we not only learned a new tool but also to adapt to unexpected challenges and to pivot our strategy as needed based on Coda’s available functionality. With busy work schedules, effective time management and close collaboration (with many instant messages!) were also critical to our success.

What's next for NYL

By leveraging YodaAI, we aim to revolutionize the RFP process in a collaborative, automated, and streamlined set of documentation using Coda. With the rapid change in technologies, organizations are at risk if they cannot digitize the procurement process. However, this technology can be applied as a horizontal-agnostic solution that replaces many tools focused on just one vertical. The wide use cases for this template in addition to vendor selection, include:

• Talent Acquisition: Providing transparency in how hiring managers and interviewers evaluate candidates
• Talent Development: Gathering employee engagement and sentiment via ratings and qualitative feedback
• Corporate Development: Helping leaders across various business lines prioritize different criteria used to evaluate potential acquisition targets
• Innovation: Helping employees rapidly ideate and vote on ideas during ideation workshops

Built With

• chatgpt
• coda
• midjourney