🧲 Retention in AI: it’s f-in hard

Old SaaS is flipped—minimal input, maximum punch of value.

🔰 Intro — the novelty trap (and why forms are dead)
Most products get their fifteen minutes and then fade. AI makes that cycle even harsher. People try your app, smile at the “wow”, and bounce unless there’s real, repeatable value within minutes. And here’s the shift too many teams miss: the old SaaS model of grilling users with twenty questions before giving anything back has reversed. Today the machine does the leg-work; the human gets the win. One prompt, one tap, and a punch-in-the-face of value — with everything else inferred from context. Retention isn’t a feature you sprinkle on at the end; it’s proof your product actually earns a slot in someone’s week. This piece cuts through the fluff and shows how to turn AI novelty into necessity under that outcome-first reality.

📉 The brutal bit — why most curves collapse
Early retention predicts late retention. If week one is soft, month three won’t save you. You can paper over cracks with notifications and shiny tweaks, but if the core job-to-be-done isn’t strong, the curve keeps sliding. Two forces make it worse as you grow. First, category gravity: some problems are naturally daily, others are episodic — accept the cadence you’re in. Second, dilution: your golden early users arrive organically and are high-intent; later cohorts come colder and are harder to keep. The only reliable antidote is getting to value fast, with minimal input, and then compounding that value every time they return.