Unique Research · Insight / Unique Friend Q&A · October 14, 2024 · Guest: CEO, vika (维格云)
Product: vika / multidimensional spreadsheet cloud — among China’s earliest multi-dimensional table low-code tools; 1M+ mainland users for CRM, project systems, etc. Not day-1 international — now rebuilding for global + AI-native as Bika.ai (not yet public). Dozens of U.S. paying customers already on the new stack.
GenAI impact: New product rebuilt in ~6 months vs ~2 years for the old one — CEO wrote 100% of the underlying architecture with AI coding assist, cutting PM–engineer coordination cost. ChatGPT-class tools cheapen multi-angle marketing copy; pricing/business models unchanged at the macro level.
Tech lead: In many scenes AI is “just the brain” — real work needs eyes/ears/hands/feet and multi-person collab. Don’t reverse-engineer products from AI tech (carving the boat for the sword). Biggest GenAI asset may be AI thinking — natural-language, human-like interaction that returns computing to plain language instead of screen-poking workarounds.
Ecosystem: Model vendors ≈ roads / telcos after reform — “want wealth, build roads.” Unclear if highway bureaus should own cement plants / telcos own switches. Long-term: roads unlock construction, tourism, real estate; info highways unlock cloud and internet platforms — if capital raises stay sane and resource limits create real businesses.
Challenges: Tech-as-infrastructure vs tech-as-industry. Domestically too much capital → smartest people build complex tech for free → favors chaebol-style bridge-building with other P&L/taxes. Founders feel like Village A’s ambitious head building dirt roads while Village B gets a free high-speed rail spur. Similar abroad at different ratios.
2024 watch: Two AI directions — humans managing AI (ChatGPT, agents) needs the “4% elite” who can prompt well; the “96% normal” often say “I don’t know what to tell the AI.” More interested in still-rare AI managing humans.
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