Aytekin Tank is the founding father of Jotform, an automation fanatic, and an writer. Based in 2006, Jotform is the pioneering WYSIWYG on-line kind builder, which has grown to serve over 25 million customers worldwide and employs a workforce of greater than 650. In 2016, Entrepreneur Journal named Jotform one of many “Finest Privately-Owned Corporations in America.”
As CEO, he is proud to steer the corporate’s ongoing progress and improvement, with an annual progress fee of over 50 % and a dedication to introducing cutting-edge options and integrations.
Along with his function as CEO, Aytekin is a productiveness and automation advocate and lately authored the WSJ bestselling ebook “Automate Your Busywork.”
Aytekin shares his philosophies as a enterprise chief and CEO in columns in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Quick Firm and Unite.AI.
Jotform was one of many first WYSIWYG on-line kind builders. What impressed you to create Jotform again in 2006, and the way did you validate the necessity for it available in the market?
The concept for Jotform got here after I was working as a developer for a New York media firm. One among my obligations was creating on-line types from scratch. It was tedious and redundant, and by no means left me feeling notably impressed. It was additionally time-consuming. At a sure level, I believed to myself: there needs to be a sooner, extra environment friendly approach. So I began moonlighting as a solopreneur—constructing my on-line kind startup on nights and weekends and clocking a 9-to-5 each weekday.
As for validating the thought, Jotform was impressed by a frustration that I used to be experiencing. I figured that anybody in my function—working as a developer for any group—would drastically profit from it. I started with a freemium product to check out the waters. Then, as I spotted individuals have been prepared to pay for it, I developed a paid model as nicely. I made a decision I’d wait to stop my day job till my startup earnings equaled my wage. In the summertime of 2005, I turned in my resignation and went all in on Jotform.
You bootstrapped Jotform and grew it into an organization serving 25 million customers. What have been the largest challenges you confronted within the early years, and the way did you overcome them?
Within the early years—and please remember, this was nicely earlier than the rise of AI—my largest problem was making time for the bigger-picture pondering essential to take my firm to the following degree. Busywork, like emails, scheduling, and on a regular basis administrative duties, have been monopolizing my schedule and fairly frankly, left me feeling drained on the finish of the day. I felt like I used to be by no means doing sufficient, and on the identical time, I used to be working on empty. It was an actual conundrum. Worst of all, I knew we have been lacking alternatives to supply our customers adjoining services and products that might make their lives simpler.
Once I began searching for automation options in my very own every day processes, it was an actual watershed second—for myself and the enterprise. It didn’t change the substance of my work—it reworked my method. As an alternative of attempting to perform as many duties as potential on my to-do listing, my method started with figuring out redundant, time-consuming duties that I might automate. Then, I discovered myself with extra time for work that felt significant—like strategizing the way to roll out new merchandise and break into new markets. Not solely that, I had extra time to relaxation, which has been crucial for long-term, sustainable progress.
How has the evolution of no-code and automation instruments influenced Jotform’s product improvement and imaginative and prescient through the years?
The variety of no-code and automation instruments in the marketplace has skyrocketed. It’s to the purpose the place in the event you’re not on board with the automation revolution, you’re doing a disservice to your organization and/or profession. However one factor that has served Jotform is our inner automation-first mindset. On an enterprise and particular person degree, we’re at all times searching for new methods to automate handbook duties—in different phrases, we’re trying to make our personal work lives simpler. And that speaks to our core mission—automating on-line types and collaboration instruments to make our customers’ lives simpler, and regularly searching for new methods to take action. In a way, we’ve practiced what we preach because the onset of automation.
Jotform is launching its AI Brokers on February 25, 2025. Are you able to give us an summary of this new product and the issues it goals to resolve?
We’re actually excited to supply this new product to our customers. I believe it should rework how individuals work. Primarily, Jotform AI Brokers will assist Jotform customers create on-line types and attain objectives requiring a number of steps. For instance, as an alternative of sending somebody an occasion registration kind, you ship them a telephone quantity. They name and supply the mandatory data by speaking to an AI agent that understands pure language—so the individual doesn’t have to stay to a inflexible script. For its half, the AI agent isn’t simply filling out the shape, but it surely’s additionally updating the corporate’s inner information, answering the client’s questions, and extra. Importantly, an AI agent can take the following steps primarily based by itself reasoning and decision-making, lowering the necessity for human enter. And one of the best half: it doesn’t want relaxation or trip time—it’s on name 24/7.
How do Jotform AI Brokers differ from different AI-powered chatbots and automation instruments in the marketplace?
For starters, Jotform AI Brokers, like most brokers, are extra dynamic and autonomous. Their behaviors and actions aren’t conscripted. They’re reasoning, making choices, executing duties, and studying as they go—all on their very own. To interrupt it down a bit additional, a chatbot responds to a easy determination tree with scripted responses. It should keep inside its scope. An AI agent, then again, can cause and act autonomously, making complicated choices about novel points, accessing data throughout the enterprise, and finishing duties accordingly. Google has in contrast AI brokers to a chef—planning recipes, gathering substances, creating dishes, and tweaking as they go. In that case, a chatbot is extra like a line prepare dinner following predetermined recipes.
Companies usually wrestle with customer support automation. How do Jotform AI Brokers guarantee a extra “pleasant” and human-like interplay?
In our testing, we’ve truly discovered that customers want AI Agent interactions for numerous causes, the obvious being the pace of response and round the clock availability. However apparently, individuals additionally appear much less inhibited when talking with AI customer support brokers. They’re not self-conscious about asking seemingly foolish questions. They’re not apprehensive about asking the identical query repeatedly till they really perceive one thing. In a way, they’re extra prone to get the assistance and readability they want. We’ve discovered that prospects care extra about effectively getting the assistance they want than exchanging pleasantries, particularly if it’s a problem that may be resolved comparatively rapidly.
Will customers be capable to customise and practice their AI Brokers to suit particular enterprise wants, or will they comply with pre-set workflows?
Sure. We’re rolling out 1000’s of AI brokers for an unlimited array of companies and roles—from buyer help and gross sales AI brokers to tattoo studio and faculty administrator AI brokers. For its half, a enterprise can work together with its AI agent in actual time to refine its responses and enhance its data base. For instance, by including related URLs, paperwork, and ceaselessly requested questions, all intending to make sure brokers present correct and useful data. A method that brokers differ from generative AI is their capability to retain data from previous interactions. This permits them to coach themselves as nicely, providing a extra customized buyer expertise with every engagement. Lastly, coaching an AI agent is intuitive and versatile—no coding expertise is required.
You lately wrote about how AI Brokers are remodeling early-stage entrepreneurship. When you have been beginning Jotform immediately, how would AI brokers have modified your method?
Once I began my enterprise, I used to be fairly adamant about not accepting outdoors funding. I used to be assured in my concept, however I additionally felt that to be able to construct a enterprise with endurance, I needed to develop it organically. Going the VC-funded route could have skewed the notion of Jotform’s validity. If I have been beginning Jotform immediately, I’d have much more cause to comply with the bootstrap route. As I’ve written, AI brokers supply early-stage entrepreneurs so some ways to automate routine, administrative duties and concentrate on bettering their merchandise and scaling their companies.
So, to reply your query, I don’t assume AI brokers would have modified my method, however I can think about I’d have scaled sooner—and nonetheless not taken excellent funding.
You’ve written extensively about automation, together with in your ebook Automate Your Busywork. How do you personally use AI Brokers or automation instruments to handle your every day duties as a CEO?
In terms of my every day workload, I start with an automation-first method—if there’s an AI-powered device to perform a job that doesn’t want my private consideration, I’m in all probability utilizing some model of it. I take advantage of AI Brokers and automation instruments for scheduling, brainstorming, tightening up my every day workflows, conferences, and extra. Between time saved and impression boosted, the consequences of automation are compounded. Take into account conferences: as an alternative of spending half an hour making ready the agenda, an hour within the assembly (the place your consideration is leaping between conversations and note-taking), then making ready a recap and drafting follow-up emails, an AI agent can deal with the entire meeting-related duties and allow you to completely concentrate on the precise conversations. It’s a no brainer.
What recommendation would you give to startups and small companies trying to combine AI into their workflows however not sure the place to start?
If I have been to present startups and small companies one piece of recommendation, it might be to observe the newest AI instruments, and carve out time for experimenting with them and incorporating them into your every day workflows to automate as many handbook processes as potential. It could require constructing some slack into your schedule, however you’ll recapture that point and a lot extra as soon as you start automating and delegating to AI brokers. However perhaps a very powerful change shall be your vitality: as an alternative of feeling frazzled by your continuously rising to-do listing, you’ll have house and time to work on extra significant duties that depart you energized—the sorts of issues that remind you why you threw your hat into the entrepreneurial ring within the first place.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers are encourage to go to Jotform, to learn his ebook Automate Your Busywork, or to learn a few of his writing on our web site.
