With new generative AI tools and platforms hitting the market, virtual whiteboard collaboration vendor Stormboard has released StormAI to help users generate and organize ideas faster.
AI Assistant was released as a Technology Preview for enterprise tier customers on May 9th and is also available for free for 30 days for business tier customers. According to Stormboard, this will be a paid feature in the enterprise tier next quarter.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, remote work trends have continued to dominate, driving the need for platforms that make online collaboration easy and intuitive. Many vendors offer virtual whiteboards for digitally recreating teamwork environments.
But even with generative AI capabilities, human input and oversight are still paramount in ideation platforms, according to Metrigy analyst Irwin Lazar.
Balancing human-AI collaboration
StormAI and tools like it can provide workflows and content that serve as starting points for further human brainstorming, Lazar said.
Generative AI can create initial designs for products and marketing materials directly within a virtual whiteboard for your team to further develop.
Erwin LazarMetrigy Analyst
“Generative AI, for example, could create initial designs for products and marketing materials directly within a virtual whiteboard, allowing teams to further develop them,” said Lazar.
According to Al Wasserberger, Stormboard’s chief revenue officer, generative AI can come up with weird ideas, and that’s not a bad thing. He said that after talking to customers, he found that the team tends to welcome the unconventional. Because ideas can be analyzed differently.
“They really like it,” Wasserberger said. “This has allowed our employees to be a little more creative. We don’t have to worry about coming up with bad ideas.”
Teams working in Stormboard can use StormAI to generate templates with relevant ideas by selecting tasks and providing text prompts. The final product is rendered in Stormboard’s classic sticky note format.
StormAI can assist your team throughout the brainstorming process. This helps the user generate templates before the meeting, create ideas during the meeting, and after the meeting he can export the ideas using Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Docs.
“This full round trip allows us to really condense the meeting,” Wasserberger said.
Stormboard is not alone in the virtual whiteboard niche. Tech giants such as Microsoft have also entered the space.
Copilot, Microsoft’s virtual whiteboard program, offers similar functionality. His Copilot on the Whiteboard not only generates and organizes ideas based on the user’s text, but it can also create new accompanying images using Microsoft Designer.
Stormboard, on the other hand, is sold in the Microsoft Store.
Competitors in the virtual whiteboard market, such as Mural and Miro, are also expected to adopt generative AI tools, according to Lazar.
But according to TalkingPointz analyst Dave Michels, generative AI will only work in the long run if it earns users’ trust.
“At this stage, the data users can share with AI assistants is limited to certain apps and features,” Michels said. “The barrier that needs to be overcome is whether AI can move from being a collaborative tool to being a collaborative participant.”
Wasserberger said that for security reasons, StormAI sends data to Stormboard’s private database on Azure’s OpenAI service, which is deleted after 30 days. It is not being used for training purposes, he said.
From machine learning to learning from machines
Another potential pitfall for Stormboard and similar collaboration app vendors is technology getting in the way of human creativity.
Gartner analyst Adam Preset said there may come a time when generative AI becomes so clever that its suggestions surpass those of humans, robbing them of the personal satisfaction of brainstorming.
“Inspiration comes not only by choosing an idea that someone else has produced, but by having that idea yourself,” Preset said. “As a way of innovation, we need to remember that we can be creative in making choices and recombining ideas.”
Adding generative AI isn’t the only way to improve teamwork with technology.
Last week, Adobe announced an update to FigJam, a whiteboard platform for co-design app Figma, to make the brainstorming space even more customizable and playful. FigJam’s new features include the option to consolidate the workflow into his single panel, customize colors, emoji tags, and add music.
Mary Reines is a news writer for Customer Experience and Unified Communications at TechTarget Editorial. Prior to TechTarget, Reines was the editor of Art Her. marblehead reporter.
