Angi CEO on AI Pivot: "Double Our Speed to Market"

Angi Inc. (NASDAQ:ANGI) is making a strategic shift, prioritizing artificial intelligence to enhance its core business and user experience. CEO Jeff Kip announced the company's commitment to an "AI first" coding approach, aiming to streamline operations and accelerate product development. This pivot comes as the company experiences significant changes in leadership, including new CFO and COO appointments earlier in the year.

The AI Imperative at Angi

Kip explained that the increasing complexity of legacy code in older technology platforms has been a bottleneck for innovation. He stated, "The older your technology gets, the more code is layered on top of other code, slows you down, makes innovation harder." To address this, Angi is moving towards a new platform that will leverage AI to improve efficiency and capabilities. The company plans to shift resources to build out AI features, with the goal of making the platform more responsive and intelligent for its users.

Enhancing User Experience with AI

The AI-driven transformation is expected to benefit both sides of Angi's marketplace. For homeowners, the platform aims to facilitate more natural language conversations, allowing for better problem descriptions, photo uploads, and more accurate estimates. Kip highlighted that homeowners often struggle to articulate their needs precisely. By using AI, Angi can ask more pertinent questions and provide better insights, ultimately improving the matching process with service professionals.

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For service professionals, Angi is developing a suite of AI-powered tools. Kip referred to these as "Pro agents" designed to help professionals win more jobs and derive greater value from the platform. He noted that while pros are skilled at their trade, they often struggle with administrative tasks like follow-ups and appointment management. AI can assist in these areas, potentially increasing their efficiency and success rates.

Strategic Pivot and Financial Outlook

Kip acknowledged that this strategic shift involves a significant transition, including rebuilding the company's backend systems with an AI-first approach. He projected that it will take approximately a year to fully implement the new platform and develop the initial AI agents. While acknowledging that the exact costs and return on investment are still being assessed, Kip expressed confidence that the move will ultimately lead to accelerated revenue growth. He cited a significant improvement in Angi's Net Promoter Score (NPS) over the past three years as evidence of the positive impact of their strategic decisions on customer satisfaction.

"We've gone from 1.5 billion to roughly a billion in revenue in the last few years. Most of that is giving up less profitable and lower quality revenue," Kip stated. He added that this strategic pruning has led to a 30-point increase in NPS and a 30% improvement in their pros' win rate. The company aims to build upon this by leveraging AI to further enhance efficiency and deliver greater value, with expectations of seeing positive momentum by the end of the year and accelerated revenue growth in 2027.