# Todoist's AI Future: Challenges, Planner Tools & Note-Taking App?  ## Introduction and Personal Background - The conversation starts with a casual discussion about the speaker's well-being and their family's health, with the speaker being the only one who hasn't gotten sick in their family [(00:00:10)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=10s). - The speaker mentions that they grew up in [[Northern Europe]] and are used to the cold weather, but finds it unusual that viruses don't get killed in the consistent weather where they currently live [(00:01:00)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=60s). - The speaker's team has been busy with various undertakings, including Todoist, Twist, and evolving things in the AI space [(00:01:30)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=90s). - The year 2024 has been significant for Todoist, with the introduction of team workspaces, which marks their entrance into the [[Business-to-business | B2B]] space and provides a better business model [(00:02:00)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=120s). - The team workspaces release is also beneficial for consumers, as it gives Todoist more resources to work with and may allow them to be less aggressive with pricing in the [[Direct-to-consumer | B2C]] space [(00:02:10)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=130s). - The speaker is excited about the potential for Todoist to make B2B and B2C work together without compromising on either front [(00:02:49)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=169s). ## Todoist's 2024 Achievements - Todoist has also introduced calendar support, which is a non-trivial feature, especially on mobile, and has required changes to models and underlying systems [(00:03:06)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=186s). - The team has paid off a significant portion of their backlog, reducing the number of issues from 2,000 to around 200, which has improved stability and performance [(00:03:36)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=216s). - Todoist's workspaces feature was one of the most requested features, as users wanted to better organize their work and personal life, and it was released this year [(00:04:03)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=243s). - The company takes time to think through features and their impact on productivity, which can sometimes make it seem slower to release new features, but this approach helps ensure that features are well thought out [(00:04:29)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=269s). - Addressing technical debt has allowed Todoist to focus on improving core aspects of the app and making it better, rather than just adding new features [(00:05:13)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=313s). ## Todoist's Product Philosophy and Feature Development - The company is working on improving existing features, such as search, activity log, and attachments, to make them 10 times better before introducing new features [(00:05:57)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=357s). - Todoist is careful about adding new features, considering whether they make sense and fit into the bigger picture, and also takes into account customer demand [(00:06:37)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=397s). - The company aims to find a balance between what customers want and what is actually useful for users, to avoid bloating the app with unnecessary features [(00:07:14)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=434s). - Todoist is aware of the trend in the task management space where calendar apps are adding tasks and task apps are adding calendar features, and is considering how to approach this [(00:07:33)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=453s). - The daily planner feature is being considered, but no decision has been made yet on how to proceed [(00:07:39)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=459s). - Todoist is committed to providing the best calendar support, integrating it into everything and making it a core feature, with ongoing improvements such as rewriting the web calendar to support more events and tasks [(00:07:45)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=465s). - The company is also exploring time blocking, which has become appealing to users, and is working to make weekly planning more efficient by allowing users to allocate time and work on tasks while considering upcoming events [(00:08:49)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=529s). - Todoist is entering the planner app space in a big way, with a focus on making the app more integrated and user-friendly [(00:09:46)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=586s). ## The Future of Todoist and AI Integration - The company is also considering the role of artificial intelligence in task management, with a focus on integrating deeply into [[Apple Inc. | Apple]] intelligence and providing amazing support for Apple intelligence in iOS 18 [(00:11:18)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=678s). - In the next five years, Todoist expects task management and AI to continue evolving rapidly, making it challenging to make long-term predictions, but the company is committed to staying at the forefront of these developments [(00:10:32)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=632s). - Franchesco, a key figure at Todoist, believes that AI tools are becoming more prevalent and sophisticated, moving beyond just being a feature with a bunch of stuff slapped on top [(00:10:25)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=625s). - Todoist is working to provide a more integrated and user-friendly experience, with a focus on making the app more efficient and effective for users [(00:10:00)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=600s). - Todoist's system is being built to integrate into everything on an operative system level, allowing for advanced workflows and deep integration with other apps, as well as intelligent glue to understand context [(00:11:38)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=698s). - This integration enables context-aware features, such as recognizing the app a user is in and allowing actions based on that app [(00:12:23)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=743s). - The second level of integration involves using large language models ([[Large language model | LLMs]]) like Meta's, which are being trained with significant investment and made available for free, making intelligent features a commodity [(00:12:48)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=768s). - This allows for the integration of LLMs into almost any feature, empowering them at a relatively low cost, especially with the use of on-device AI chips like Apple's [(00:13:36)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=816s). - This technology could enable the creation of personalized AI assistants, like a customized [[Siri]], optimized for specific tasks such as productivity and planning [(00:14:12)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=852s). - The third stage of development involves the use of next-generation models that can respond in real-time, making interactions more natural and conversational, with the latest [[OpenAI]] models responding in 300 milliseconds or less [(00:14:58)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=898s). - The goal is to create a system where users can have a conversation with an AI model, similar to talking to a productivity expert, to help guide them through tasks and provide assistance [(00:15:34)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=934s). - Voice becomes a critical element when the response time is 300 milliseconds or less, making it feel more natural and intuitive [(00:15:51)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=951s). - The AI model can understand visuals and context, allowing it to provide more accurate and relevant assistance, and even generate visuals to aid in the conversation [(00:16:02)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=962s). - The ideal system would be able to understand the user's needs and provide guidance without being too controlling or telling the user what to do [(00:18:00)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1080s). - AI can help with generating ideas, planning, and filtering tasks, but it's unclear if users want a system to completely automate task management [(00:18:43)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1123s). - One potential use of AI is to help users who are overwhelmed with tasks, providing guidance on what to do next and filtering out less important tasks [(00:18:53)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1133s). ## The Challenge of Task Management and AI's Role - The current state of AI adoption is still in its early stages, and most apps and platforms have not yet fully utilized AI capabilities [(00:19:16)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1156s). - Task management is challenging due to its priority-oriented and individualized nature, making it harder to organize than notes or calendars, which can be organized based on context [(00:19:32)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1172s). - There is an opportunity to help solve task management problems, and this challenge can be addressed with the help of users [(00:19:54)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1194s). ## Knowledge Management and Future Aspirations - A note-taking app is not currently being built, but there is excitement about tackling knowledge management and improving how individuals and teams manage and share knowledge [(00:20:21)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1221s). - The current state of knowledge management is messy, especially at the individual level, and is completely broken at the company or team level [(00:21:03)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1263s). - Todoist, with around 100 people, has a lot of knowledge, but it's hard to find and maintain, and the current systems being used are primitive [(00:21:17)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1277s). - A powerful LLM ([[Large language model | Large Language Model]]) could be used to connect, organize, and help write and maintain knowledge, making it exciting to tackle knowledge management [(00:21:40)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1300s). - Todoist is spread thin due to handling task management, calendar management, team communication, and other tasks, making it difficult to tackle knowledge management without a larger team [(00:22:14)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1334s). ## Gratitude to the Community and Francesco - Despite the challenges, Todoist is grateful for its customers and users and has been listening to their feedback and implementing changes over the past few years [(00:22:52)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1372s). - The founder of Todoist started the company to serve his own needs but now also serves the needs of its users [(00:23:15)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1395s). - Todoist has a much bigger user base, which is taken very seriously, and efforts are being made to improve the platform even further [(00:23:23)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1403s). - The community and Francesco are appreciated for their support, with Francesco having been involved for many years [(00:23:36)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1416s). - The first conversation between the speaker and Francesco took place 10 years ago, when the speaker was in their university dorm room and Francesco was at home during a thunderstorm [(00:23:43)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1423s). - The speaker is grateful for the 10 years of conversations with Francesco and is excited about what Todoist will bring in 2025 [(00:24:11)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qerVDqdTgZ8&t=1451s).