How Avi Singh Transformed Document Management with AI-Powered Brief Me

I have always been fascinated by designers' ability to create a vision for any product, solving day-to-day problems or addressing issues that users didn’t even realize existed.

Designers are always at the forefront of technological evolution, which keeps me designing continuously. My interests lie in SaaS and mobile product design. These days, I am designing the next big thing in human-AI collaboration.

My job profile is designing enterprise AI products. I accomplish this by studying how users use our products and what mental models they have that can be leveraged to solve their problems. My designed AI and SaaS products are available across the world.

I design and conduct user research for the products I work on. This includes thinking strategically about the products and their future 6 to 12-month timelines, as well as creating plans for myself and other designers to follow. I also review the work of other junior designers.

Design means solving users' challenges and making their lives easier. It is also about ensuring users are happy with the products I design.

My favorite kind of design is crafting solutions that are intuitive for end users and delight them. These solutions align with what users know and make them masters of what they do best. The best designs turn the people using these products into heroes.

I usually work on complicated software products. As such, my style is to make it very simple for end users to understand and use the software without requiring a lot of training. When working in a team, I empower teammates to make their own decisions and help them understand the rationale behind my proposals.

My design process starts with studying the end users and their existing processes. I then generate flows to document this process. While designing my solution, I ensure that my proposed solution aligns with and improves existing processes to delight end users. I sketch to share early designs with stakeholders and then gradually improve the fidelity and details to create a delightful software user interface.

I am from India, a country known for its diverse architecture and cultural influences from various cultures. I am also well-traveled and have drawn inspiration from the different places I have visited within India.

Brief Me was an immensely rewarding product to design for. In addition to being a major generative AI productivity tool for enterprise users, it is also a highly conversational product. I took inspiration from many of my peers and my past experience as a designer. I had the pleasure of working with a team that collaborated exceptionally well to achieve the end goals.

Brief Me is an AI-powered question-and-answer and summarizing tool for enterprise documents. Users can upload documents such as PDFs, Word files, or PowerPoint presentations and ask the AI to summarize the content to better understand the file. Users can use this to prepare for meetings or write reports without needing to read every part of reports, whitepapers, meeting minutes, or brochures.

Stakeholder alignment was the biggest challenge with this project. There were many competing requirements from different teams, and getting them aligned was challenging. I was able to successfully navigate this challenge by documenting my process and work, ensuring stakeholders understood the different challenges and the need to create a delightful product.

Winning this award has given me industry validation that my work is appreciated by my peers. This award inspires me to continue doing great work and always improve the products I touch.

I am proud of the user-centeredness, delight, and collaboration we designers bring to our workplaces every day. Design ensures that a product is delightful for the user and meets their requirements. We achieve this by making our colleagues' lives easier through improved collaboration.

The design industry will play an even bigger role in the evolution of humanity. I hope we become an interstellar species, and designers will be at the forefront of creating experiences for the new-age devices and technologies built in the future.

The advice I would give to anyone entering the NY Product Design Awards is to bring your best work and present it well.

I would suggest trying to understand user mental models and how to inject delight into your products. As long as you are able to achieve this, your users will appreciate your products.

I am an avid swimmer and I collect and grow succulents.

I have been inspired by many people in my life. My first inspirations were my parents and teachers, as well as my wife, who has stood by me through ups and downs.

Be curious and humble. Life and career are marathons, so play the long game.