This is a quick review of
What is Journey.io?
You may have heard of Journey.io through all the buzz and hype it’s been having these past couple of months, but they describe Journey as a new way of storytelling through responsive slides, video recordings, interactive blogs, and more — through a no-code fashion.
I’d say just think of it as a souped-up version of Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint.
In their own words, the value-adds are:
- The ability to create content automatically with AI
- Personalize the content to your branding or the customer’s branding easily
- Swap in modular content through different pre-made blocks.
- Get insights on how viewers are engaging with the content.
Nothing jarring in terms of value prop, but when it comes to any AI tools such as this one, the biggest thing to evaluate is if it actually delivers on its promises. Here’s a preview - it does.
Creating an Account and Dashboard
Once you create an account, you’ll be taken to the Journey dashboard, where you’ll see a list of all the journeys you’ve created in a sidebar. You have options to create a journey with AI from scratch, repurpose an existing PDF, or create from a template.
No surprises here outside of your traditional account dashboard for any software you likely use today. I will say, however, if your day-to-day is in Google Workspace or Microsoft Office, it’s a little annoying to have to go to a completely different platform.
Creating a Journey from scratch
When it comes to creating a journey from scratch, you have options to add text, images, links, files, recordings, and various integrations. There are also templates available, such as a sales room template, which includes different elements like videos, recordings, and integrations like Calendly.
The canvas almost reminded me of Prezi (2000s kids will remember), but flatter and with a lot more integrations. There is a limit to how creative you can be within the canvas, as there are only certain slots you can add in content, so the ability to customize the presentations becomes limited. The good news is that the Journeys look good regardless, but I question the ability to create more intricate presentations.
Chatbot Integration
There’s also a chatbot feature where you can add a chatbot to your journey, allowing viewers to ask questions and get responses. This can add an interactive element to your content.
To me, this was the coolest part of the entire platform - a 0 effort way to set up a chatbot, give it a personality and make it easier for the viewer to digest the content and ask questions. Not only did it provide answers to questions I asked, but suggested follow-up questions I could ask. It reminded me of the interface in Bard or the new Generative AI features coming to Google search.
Converting PDFs
You can even convert a PDF document into a journey, where the AI pulls out relevant information and organizes it into slides. This feature is particularly useful for longer documents or content-heavy pieces.
I tried it out by uploading a Certificate of Incorporation for a fictional company to see how it would handle it, considering a Certificate of Incorporation usually has a ton of legal jargon. All things considered, it took out five sections from the Certificate of Incorporation and put it into a mini Journey - not as comprehensive as I would have thought, but it still worked nonetheless.
The images that were associated with the text were obviously AI-generated, considering that most of them created nonsensical text.
AI-Generated Journeys
The AI-generated journey can cover various sections like an introduction, market analysis, growth strategies, execution plans, and more. It creates a framework that can serve as a starting point for building your presentation.
I was impressed at the presentation sections it created, but as expected, a lot of the content generated was pretty boilerplate. However, breaking down a sales narrative into a cohesive story is half of the battle, so a feature like this becomes helpful when it comes to organizing messy thoughts into an organized story.
Insights and Analytics
Journey provides insights into how your content is performing. You can track metrics like views, engagement time, and click-through rates. This can help you understand how viewers are interacting with your content.
Initially, I was surprised at how simple the provided analytics were, but after additional thought, I couldn’t really think of additional analytics that I really needed other than views and depth of engagement. In fact, Journey.io goes even further, as it provides analytics at an individual element level.
Pricing
Journey offers different pricing tiers, including a free plan with limitations on the number of journeys you can create. The paid plans offer more features, such as unlimited journeys and the removal of watermarks.
The jump in pricing from Pro to Teams is pretty drastic - I wonder which enterprises and at what size they would invest in adopting Journey.io.
Final Verdict and Considerations
Journey is a sleek product for the value adds it advertises. The product is well built, and the output is clean, aesthetic, and minimalist, and integrations make it very dynamic.
However, the biggest question that needs to be asked prior to purchasing/using Journey is — what problem does this actually solve?
While the AI can create content, the content doesn’t necessarily provide the most accurate/in-depth content, not to mention the fact that it’s not recommended to supply sensitive content to a third party like Journey. As a result, I’d argue that the time savings are negligible, considering the time it would take to re-read, re-edit, and revise.
Where I can really see a tool like this excelling is potentially for internal enablement or low-stakes presentations where hyper-customization isn’t necessary.
I would almost frame Journey.io as a hybrid between a collateral creation tool and a digital sales room. I think a product like this has very specific use cases.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Journey can be a useful tool for creating dynamic and interactive content, especially for internal purposes or less complex presentations.
However, it’s crucial to evaluate whether it genuinely addresses your needs and provides value before diving in.