The Weight of More (and what's coming soon for Betty)

I wanted to spend a little time today talking about one of the most frustrating things about working in AI: having to say no to good ideas. With how fast the technology is evolving – and the many creative ways it can be applied – there’s never a shortage of things we could be doing. But trying to do everything at once is a great way to do it all badly. 

At Betty, I’m surrounded by a team leveraging AI in new ways, constantly coming up with things that would be great for us and our customers. The community around Betty adds even more energy: people pair their excitement about possibilities with deep expertise in their own work, which naturally leads to more potential applications. Most of what makes its way to me is absolutely amazing. 

Historically, someone in my role has been a blocker because of developer capacity. We simply couldn’t do everything – there wasn’t time to write that much code. Love the idea, but we’d need 10 more people to build it. But with AI, suddenly getting the code written isn’t the bottleneck. Creating software – even complex software – can happen so much faster that sometimes it’s hard to keep a solid backlog of programming work despite the endless directions we could go. 

Does that mean we suddenly don’t need to say no? Well… unfortunately, no (ha, see what I did there). There’s a cost to “just doing more.” It’s not just the work going in, but the ongoing weight of what’s created. Every feature, every line of code, every tool added has to be carried forward, and that weight impacts everything else we want to do. 

So, whenever someone comes to me with an idea, a little argument plays out. Sometimes just in my head, sometimes out loud. Rarely is it about whether the idea has merit – almost everything has value. The real question is whether it’s the right path for us: 

• Does this make Betty better at what she’s good at?
• Does it create complexity that will slow us down later?
• How does it balance out over the long term? 

Because we have such a flood of ideas, the answer is often no. Sometimes it’s a “not now.” Sometimes a “let’s think about this more.” But because AI is moving so quickly, anything that isn’t immediate often gets left behind or transformed beyond recognition by the time we circle back. 

This might sound counter to what I often say about how AI frees us up to do more – but it still fits. The “more” isn’t about doing everything; it’s about being intentional. AI gives us the ability to offload tasks, but our real role is to be the deciders about which tasks matter. 

That’s why I’ve internalized the idea of the weight of doing more. Every action, every feature, every piece of content has a cost to carry. And my job is to make sure we don’t overload ourselves with the wrong things – the things that keep us from picking up what we really need to excel. 

The fun part: what’s moving forward 

Now, if I had to say no to everything, that would be depressing. Luckily, it’s often the opposite! We’ve got a ton moving forward at Betty – and this feels like a good time to share a peek at our near-term roadmap. 

Training tools 

Our top priority this quarter: putting training tools in your hands so you can directly manage what your Betty knows. Instead of dropping everything at once, we’re starting simple and will expand over time. The first round focuses on managing specific content, including: 

• Improved ability to find items in the knowledge base
• Editing user-facing info (titles, links, dates)
• Changing the actual content of an item
• Deleting outdated/unwanted content
• Forcing content to refresh from its source 

INSIGHTS updates 

We’re also revamping the INSIGHTS portal – especially reporting and dashboards. The current dashboard was always intended as a starting point, and with your feedback we’re testing changes that will soon be in your hands. These updates not only make data more accessible but also set us up to expose new details and get creative with how they’re presented. 

New Betty instances inside INSIGHTS 

Two Bettys are coming to INSIGHTS: 

1. Support Betty: Trained on our documentation plus supporting info from real conversations with you. As INSIGHTS evolves, this Betty will keep growing with new content, ready to help 24/7. 
2. Chat log Betty: (taking name suggestions): Trained on your own instances’ activity. You’ll be able to ask things like:
   

• What are people talking about?
• What are the hot topics?
• Where has Betty been struggling? 

We’re building in the processes to keep this fresh, so it stays up to date, plus generating higher-level reports to highlight trends and insights. 

Making Betty smarter 

Behind the scenes, we’re testing new retrieval techniques to improve how Betty finds information. This means: 

• better focus on subsets of content you’ve subscribed to 

• stronger handling of recency and prioritization 

• significant improvements to overall accuracy 

We’re still deep in testing but will share more as we get closer. 

Personalization without the risk 

Finally, some great conversations at ASAE Annual helped solidify a plan we’ve been considering for a while: making interactions with Betty more personal. Many of you have asked about real-time AMS integrations, but we’ve avoided direct access to sensitive data. Instead, we’re opening a path for you to tell Betty what she needs to know in the moment. 

That means if you can assemble a “profile” of a logged-in user on your site, you can pass it into Betty through the widget (just like you can today with a username). That profile might include membership renewal status, years of membership, certifications, or anything else relevant – all without Betty needing a direct system connection. 

 
What’s next 

These are just a few of the items currently in motion (I expect we’ll have a full post soon on Betty:DIRECTORY). We’re always looking for feedback. Not all ideas can or should be implemented, but input from the community carries real weight – especially when ideas get repeated. 

If you want to shape where Betty goes next, INSIGHTS Live is one of the best places to build support and influence the roadmap. Hope to see you there!