AI at Amplitude: Our AI Philosophy and Principles

Our intentional approach to using AI to build better products at Amplitude

Inside Amplitude
August 8, 2023
Image of Shadi Rostami
Shadi Rostami
Senior/executive VP of Engineering
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The development of artificial intelligence (AI) and use of AI-powered technologies has already had, and will continue having, a significant impact on our industry—and on the world—for decades to come. At Amplitude, we recognize just how transformative of a role AI will play in building better products. At the same time, we believe that this power raises equally powerful questions about how we will use AI at Amplitude. We are committed and feel responsible for getting AI right. So today, we’re sharing our AI philosophy and principles that guide our team, product, and business today and into the future.

Our AI philosophy centers on the belief that AI should aid humans in improving their work, rather than replacing them. As a result, our Amplitude AI features will assist people with getting to insights faster, e.g. by automatically naming and describing things, enabling semantic search, writing complex formulas, creating analyses based on free-form questions, explaining graphs, suggesting next steps, detecting anomalies, and more. By providing these tools, we empower users to get insights and take action faster, which ultimately leads to building better products.

Defining what’s important

Our executives, leaders, and legal experts have worked together to start answering the tough questions AI poses. And while we will continue these important conversations going forward, we want to ensure today that we will always have a people-centric focus. Which is why, together, we’ve identified five principles that will guide our AI development and use of AI technologies.

  • Collaborative development and thought partnership: We foster collaborative partnerships with our customers and AI design partners throughout the AI development process. By working together, we ensure that our AI capabilities are designed to meet the needs and expectations of our customers. Moreover, we are committed to actively sharing best practices and insights on utilizing user behavior to build more effective AI tools, creating an open exchange of knowledge to benefit our customers.
  • Data governance and user data protection: Protecting our customers’ data is our top priority. Our commitment to data governance ensures responsible stewardship of customer data throughout the AI development lifecycle.
  • Transparency: Our customers have the right to know about our AI development practices. We openly communicate about our AI features, the data they utilize, their capabilities, and their limitations, ensuring our customers have visibility into how AI is integrated into our services. AI-powered features will be clearly indicated as such in the product.
  • Privacy, security, and regulatory compliance: Our commitment to compliance ensures that our AI capabilities operate within the boundaries of applicable laws and standards, including data privacy laws such as GDPR. The development and use of our AI technologies does not change our unwavering commitment to privacy by design and our high standards for privacy and security safeguards. We build privacy and security controls into our technology and conduct regular audits to ensure we are in compliance with our policies and the law. For more information, please refer to our Customer Trust Portal.
  • Customer choice and control: Respecting our customers’ choices is of utmost importance. We are committed to offering our customers options around the use of our AI services, and to ensuring they maintain control over their data so they can make informed decisions. We will always provide the ability for our customers to choose how their data may be shared with AI providers or used in models.

These principles guide us in our AI journey, where we aim to build cutting-edge AI capabilities that not only leverage innovative technology but also prioritize data governance, transparency, compliance, and people-centricity. Through collaboration, respect for user choices, and the ethical use of data, we seek to create AI tools that positively impact our customers and the wider community.

Where do we go from here?

We are excited for the growth of AI-powered product development, and invite you to join us on this AI journey. Learn more about our AI vision and Amplitude AI.

About the Author
Image of Shadi Rostami
Shadi Rostami
Senior/executive VP of Engineering
Shadi is the Senior/Executive VP of Engineering at Amplitude. She is a passionate, seasoned technology leader and architect experienced in building and managing highly proficient engineering teams. Prior to Amplitude, she was VP of Engineering at Palo Alto Networks. She has innovated and delivered several product lines and services specializing in Distributed Systems, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Machine learning and Security. She has a Ph.D. in computer engineering from University of British Columbia and a B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology. Shadi has published several peer reviewed conference articles and journals as well as several patents.