Innovative Calendar Scheduling with AI
December 07, 2018
Innovative Calendar Scheduling with AI
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with x.ai
We currently use x.ai with a small number of users, myself included. I am the one who purchased it initially as an individual user, and then eventually bought a team plan for my direct reports (4 in total) for internal and external meetings. The primary reason I initially bought it was to save time on scheduling meetings and to streamline that workflow so that I didn't have to manage my calendar as much. I now use it for that purpose and as a way to let others selectively see my calendar availability and schedule meeting with me. Our organization doesn't use x.ai broadly; it's limited to just my team.
- x.ai makes it easy to initiate, schedule, and manage meetings with internal and external constituents. Especially in the case of internal constituents, scheduling is almost instantaneous on the team plan because the AI can see the available/busy schedules for anyone in our G Suite domain and schedule meetings based on my preferences and the other person's availability.
- The calendar function makes it easy for me to share a limited calendar with others so that they can automatically schedule a meeting with me without having to go back and forth.
- The customer service team at x.ai is stellar. They are kind, quick to respond, and typically resolve cases on the first try. They are also incredibly receptive to feedback and new ideas that often get incorporated into the product.
- It is an AI program, which means there are situations where things can go off the rails because of a misinterpreted sentence or things not being phrased precisely the right way. This was especially true for me when trying to identify time zones for other guests. Because the AI can do natural language processing, it can be spoken to with normal sentences. That said, ambiguous statements can sometimes cause errors. This has become less of an issue as the product has matured, but it still crops up.
- The automatic scheduling with internal constituents can be problematic if a) a person is traveling or b) that person doesn't regularly update their calendar. Because the AI is only seeing the available/busy times, it can distinguish where a person is, so if someone is traveling abroad but only has the dates marked off as all-day events (i.e. it's not blocking out time slots on the calendar) it can cause problems that require back-and-forth to fix.
- It does take some getting used to for other people when using it for the first time. I've typically had to let people know that Amy and Andrew (the names of the AI bots) are, in fact, AI and not humans. While most of the time people find that funny or interesting, there are some who get a little frightened of that.
- x.ai has definitely helped me manage my calendar better and has let me focus on more high-impact high-return tasks since I don't have to focus on email ping pong and schedule juggling.
- Since x.ai lowered their prices ($8 per month individual, $12 per team member per month) to be more competitive, it is a significant value. I wouldn't have said that under their old pricing model ($20 per month for individual, $40 per month for team). In terms of time saved for me and my team members, it is a good ROI.
The only other product I know of in this space is Calendly, which doesn't have the AI component. I haven't used Calendly extensively - I've primarily used it when others have directed me to it - but it looks like a good product. I ultimately have stuck with x.ai because it gives me more options for scheduling with others rather than just having them look at my calendar. For some constituents, if I can get them out of the back and forth with me, it makes it much easier to get something scheduled.