They wanted the AI back
Yedric went down briefly, and one of ShopPad's customers contacted support to ask when it would be back.
Not because they couldn't get help. A human was available. They specifically wanted the AI back 🤣
@aaron_wadler told me about that when we talked recently, along with everything Yedric has changed inside ShopPad's support operation.
Most AI support products are built to answer questions. Yedric is built to take actions inside a Shopify app. It understands the quirks of app embeds and can actually help a merchant do the thing they're trying to do, instead of just telling them how.
And this is already running in production across ShopPad's high-traffic apps. ShopPad has five full-time support people, which has to make it one of the larger support operations among Shopify app companies in the US. Yedric was built by that team around their actual workflows, and it has completely changed how they work.
They don't do live chat anymore. The support team used to cover roughly 9 to 5 California time, which is sane for full-time humans. Now Yedric can help customers 24/7, and the team can see conversations filling in the heat map well outside their old support hours.
The bigger result isn't ticket deflection. Their non-activation churn is down. Customers aren't just getting an answer without involving a human. They're making it through the points where they otherwise would have gotten stuck and left.
Also, the UI is unusually polished. The animations are honestly sick. That matters more than it might sound. The latest models have made AI chat better in general, but getting customers to choose it over a human requires the experience to actually feel good.
That's what makes the customer asking for Yedric back so wild. People aren't just putting up with it because it's available 24/7. They're genuinely enjoying it.
“AI support” kind of undersells what they're building. Answering questions is one thing. Actually helping customers accomplish the thing is a different product.
Disclosure: I'm doing some paid work helping Yedric roll this out to other Shopify app developers. If you have a Shopify app and want to try it: https://yedric.ai