Inflection AI
Designing and scaling emotionally intelligent AI interfaces
In close collaboration with Inflection AI, we helped shape the experience of a new era-empathetic AI.
When Inflection AI set out to build Pi - their first product to market and a personal AI designed to be emotionally intelligent and safe - they knew the interface would matter as much as the model.
Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who had previously worked with ustwo on DeepMind Health’s Streams app, came to us to help bring this vision to life. We partnered with Inflection over the course of a year, embedding a cross-functional team to accelerate their experience roadmap and design an emotionally resonant interface - one grounded in trust, safety, and human connection, to make Pi feel less like a chatbot and more like a companion.
Designing for emotional intelligence
At ustwo, we believe the most impactful AI experiences are the ones that are not just functionally intuitive, but also resonate with users emotionally. This approach guided our partnership with Inflection on Pi - to create an interface that felt calm, curious, and human. One that could build trust, reduce friction, and create a safe space for reflection.
Inflection’s proprietary model is designed to be empathetic - talking users through challenges, helping them spark ideas, or simply feel heard. Every design decision we made together was in service of making this promise feel tangible and real.
A partnership built on focus
ustwo joined Inflection in late 2022 to help bring the first version of Pi’s iOS app to market in April 2023. Our early work focused on rapid technical execution, helping to build a performant and beautiful mobile app at Silicon Valley speed.
Post-launch, our partnership deepened. We became an embedded cross-functional team - contributing across strategy, research, UX design, frontend engineering, and delivery - with a remit to help grow Pi experientially into something richer and more human with every six-week release cycle.
We’ve kept coming back to ustwo since bringing Pi to market. Their research and design contributions have helped us stay ahead in a fast-moving market, and their product design approach brings new perspectives to our work.
From a blinking cursor to a multi-modal companion
Pi’s voice and tone is its superpower - empathetic, inquisitive, and relentlessly kind. To reflect this we collaborated closely with Inflection to research, design, and build a series of features that stripped away common UI conventions in favor of intentional, emotional flow.
We co-created key features like Discover, which gently guides users to explore new topics to help deepen their relationship with Pi and encourage the first step in conversation. We also helped to launch Call Pi, the first voice-chat AI feature released in-market for a chatbot.
We deliberately designed Pi to be extremely cautious and respectful. It’s very careful not to be judgmental or biassed in any way.
Research in real time
With a fast-moving product like Pi, user insight had to be continuous. We helped Inflection build a real-time feedback loop that included weekly qualitative interviews, usability testing, A/B testing, and community listening through social channels to inform product roadmap priorities.
These research rituals helped us respond to real behaviors and emotional cues - ensuring that every feature and innovation we collaboratively shape was grounded in a real-world insight and therefore more likely to make a significant impact for users.
Measuring impact
Since launch, Pi has become one of the world’s most recognized emotionally intelligent AI experiences. As of March 2024:
- 1M+daily active users
- 6M+users per month
- 33minutes average session time
But it’s not just about the numbers. It’s how people describe Pi: comforting, curious, thoughtful, and safe. That’s the outcome of emotional design done right.
Personalised AI is an especially exciting area to be working in right now, and Pi is at the forefront of that. We're thrilled to be working with Inflection on what's next.
Get a piece of the Pi: Chat with Pi on the platform’s webpage or the iOS mobile app.
To learn more about our work or chat with our client team, reach out at hello@ustwo.com.