Aytekin Tank is the founding father of Jotform, an automation fanatic, and an creator. 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 group of greater than 650. In 2016, Entrepreneur Journal named Jotform one of many “Greatest Privately-Owned Corporations in America.”
As CEO, he is proud to steer the corporate’s ongoing progress and growth, with an annual progress charge of over 50 p.c and a dedication to introducing cutting-edge options and integrations.
Along with his position as CEO, Aytekin is a productiveness and automation advocate and just 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 out there?
The concept for Jotform got here after I was working as a developer for a New York media firm. One in every of my tasks was creating on-line varieties 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 assumed to myself: there needs to be a sooner, extra environment friendly manner. 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 concept, Jotform was impressed by a frustration that I used to be experiencing. I figured that anybody in my position—working as a developer for any group—would significantly profit from it. I started with a freemium product to check out the waters. Then, as I spotted individuals have been keen to pay for it, I developed a paid model as properly. I made a decision I’d wait to give up 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 have in mind, this was properly earlier than the rise of AI—my greatest problem was making time for the bigger-picture pondering essential to take my firm to the following stage. 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 similar time, I used to be operating 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 would make their lives simpler.
Once I began searching for automation options in my very own day by 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 strategy. As an alternative of making an attempt to perform as many duties as potential on my to-do record, my strategy 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 easy methods 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 growth 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 if you happen to’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 inside automation-first mindset. On an enterprise and particular person stage, we’re at all times searching for new methods to automate handbook duties—in different phrases, we’re seeking to make our personal work lives simpler. And that speaks to our core mission—automating on-line varieties 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 unravel?
We’re actually excited to supply this new product to our customers. I feel it should remodel how individuals work. Primarily, Jotform AI Brokers will assist Jotform customers create on-line varieties and achieve objectives requiring a number of steps. For instance, as a substitute of sending somebody an occasion registration kind, you ship them a telephone quantity. They name and supply the mandatory info by speaking to an AI agent that understands pure language—so the particular person 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 inside data, answering the shopper’s questions, and extra. Importantly, an AI agent can take the following steps based mostly by itself reasoning and decision-making, decreasing 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 selections, 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 resolution tree with scripted responses. It should keep inside its scope. An AI agent, then again, can motive and act autonomously, making advanced selections about novel points, accessing info throughout the enterprise, and finishing duties accordingly. Google has in contrast AI brokers to a chef—planning recipes, gathering components, growing dishes, and tweaking as they go. In that case, a chatbot is extra like a line cook dinner following predetermined recipes.
Companies usually battle 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 velocity 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 nervous about asking the identical query repeatedly till they honestly perceive one thing. In a way, they’re extra more likely 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 enormous array of companies and roles—from buyer help and gross sales AI brokers to tattoo studio and college 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 regularly requested questions, all intending to make sure brokers present correct and useful info. A method that brokers differ from generative AI is their capability to retain info from previous interactions. This permits them to coach themselves as properly, 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. In case you have been beginning Jotform right now, how would AI brokers have modified your strategy?
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 so as to construct a enterprise with endurance, I needed to develop it organically. Going the VC-funded route might have skewed the notion of Jotform’s validity. If I have been beginning Jotform right now, I might have much more motive to comply with the bootstrap route. As I’ve written, AI brokers provide early-stage entrepreneurs so some ways to automate routine, administrative duties and concentrate on enhancing their merchandise and scaling their companies.
So, to reply your query, I don’t suppose AI brokers would have modified my strategy, however I can think about I might 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 day by day duties as a CEO?
With regards to my day by day workload, I start with an automation-first strategy—if there’s an AI-powered device to perform a process that doesn’t want my private consideration, I’m most likely utilizing some model of it. I take advantage of AI Brokers and automation instruments for scheduling, brainstorming, tightening up my day by day workflows, conferences, and extra. Between time saved and affect boosted, the consequences of automation are compounded. Take into account conferences: as a substitute of spending half an hour getting ready the agenda, an hour within the assembly (the place your consideration is leaping between conversations and note-taking), then getting ready a recap and drafting follow-up emails, an AI agent can sort out the entire meeting-related duties and allow you to totally concentrate on the precise conversations. It’s a no brainer.
What recommendation would you give to startups and small companies seeking to combine AI into their workflows however uncertain the place to start?
If I have been to offer startups and small companies one piece of recommendation, it will be to watch the newest AI instruments, and carve out time for experimenting with them and incorporating them into your day by day workflows to automate as many handbook processes as potential. It might 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 crucial change can be your vitality: as a substitute of feeling frazzled by your continually rising to-do record, you’ll have house and time to work on extra significant duties that go away 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 good 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.