AskNicely Uncovers 3x More Customer Insights Using Generative AI

AskNicely helps people-powered businesses grow by motivating employees to create awesome customer experiences. The platform captures real-time customer feedback and generates scores to measure customer sentiment and identify targeted areas for improvement.

As businesses sought to uncover deeper insights, particularly from free-text survey responses, AskNicely saw an opportunity to enhance its offerings. Paul Shingles, chief product officer at AskNicely, says, “Our surveys generate a lot of interest, especially the free-text comments, which spark valuable discussions within organizations. We wanted to provide tools that help organizations understand the true meaning behind customer comments, adding more value for our users.” AskNicely turned to generative AI as a powerful tool to unlock these insights so businesses could better understand and respond to customer needs.

AskNicely has long utilized AWS to host its application environment in the cloud, using services such as AWS Lambda for serverless computing and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for database management. “We’re heavily invested in AWS, and we saw an opportunity to expand further using generative AI services on AWS,” says Aaron Cooper, principal engineer at AskNicely.

To enhance customer insights, AskNicely developed NiceAI, a generative AI customer experience application, using Amazon Bedrock—a managed service providing access to foundation models through a single API. The journey began with a hackathon, in which AskNicely’s developers collaborated with AWS experts. AskNicely rapidly progressed from proof of concept (PoC) to production in just two months, delivering three generative AI-powered product features. “With rapid advancements in AI, we used the hackathon to explore modern AI tools and models. AWS provided invaluable support, hosting our team to boost skills on Amazon Bedrock,” recalls Shingles.

NiceAI was designed to collect customer feedback dynamically in real time, enabling richer, more actionable insights. The application generates custom survey questions based on each customer’s attributes and prior interactions and includes features like automated feedback summaries that highlight key trends. It also moderates feedback to transform negative language into constructive insights, fostering a more positive user experience. “NiceAI’s generative AI–powered questions give our clients a detailed breakdown of customer feedback so they can explore data from multiple perspectives,” says Shingles. To ensure compliance with global data privacy standards—including GDPR requirements for data localization—NiceAI operates across several AWS Regions. “With customers worldwide, it’s critical that we host their data securely in-region,” adds Cooper.

The introduction of NiceAI has transformed how AskNicely’s customers gather and analyze feedback, driving up to three times more customer responses per survey compared to traditional methods. By leveraging Amazon Bedrock and generative AI, organizations can uncover precise details about customer concerns, such as identifying cleanliness issues in gyms or resolving specific service challenges. Shingles explains, “The dynamic surveys powered by Amazon Bedrock allow our customers to know more about the problem at that point, enabling faster and more effective responses.”

This innovation has seen strong adoption, with 46 percent of eligible customers using the AI Insights feature within the first month of launch. During this period, customers conducted unique AI-driven analyses, highlighting the demand for tools that explore data across dimensions such as location, territory, or customer segmentation. Shingles notes that “Customers are eager to go the next layer, and the next layer,” using these insights to make informed decisions and implement targeted improvements.

Operational processes have also become more efficient. NiceAI now allows instant summarization and segmentation of input, helping businesses address concerns more effectively and prevent recurring issues. AI moderation further supports this by refining emotionally charged comments into constructive, actionable insights. “With AI moderation, we can take important, though sometimes less constructive, input and turn it into something meaningful and supportive of the actions that need to happen,” says Shingles.

Reflecting on the success of NiceAI, he concludes, “We’ve seen an unprecedented level of engagement and adoption with this feature set. It’s clear that customers are not only ready for AI-driven tools but are eager to use them to transform how they address customer feedback and improve their operations.”