Nextdoor's CEO Rebooting the Neighborhood App with AI and Local News
When Nirav Tolia returned as Nextdoor's CEO in July, it was not to revive the struggling social app of his former self but to reboot it entirely. The platform, which once thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic as a hub for connections and local recommendations, has since slowed down and faced accusations of toxic content.
"We don't bring a founder back to incrementally change something," Tolia said, "we bring a founder back to reboot something." Rebooting is a more difficult task than booting, requiring significant changes in direction.
Tolia's turnaround strategy focuses on making Nextdoor more local and useful. A new alert system warns residents about emergencies, while partnerships with over 3,500 local publications bring geographically tailored news directly into users' feeds. Artificial intelligence (A.I.) sits at the heart of this effort.
The new A.I. agent draws from the platform's vast archive of posts to provide contextual responses to user questions. It also powers personalized feeds and offers writing suggestions, including "kindness reminders" to encourage civility when users draft posts. The goal is to counterbalance complaints with more uplifting or informative content, such as community events and local news.
Curbing negativity is a major focus for Tolia's team. Negative posts make up less than 1% of all content on Nextdoor but dominate discussions. To address this, the team aims to consistently introduce content types that are not about complaining but about delight.
Tolia believes that A.I. can strengthen real-world community ties by encouraging users to connect with their neighbors and engage in local life. This is particularly important in a world where people are losing connection to the physical world.
Early feedback on the redesign has been largely positive, according to Tolia. However, he acknowledges that Nextdoor faces a long road ahead and is "very far from cracking the code." The company's stock price has fallen over 80% since its IPO, but Tolia is confident in his turnaround strategy.
When Nirav Tolia returned as Nextdoor's CEO in July, it was not to revive the struggling social app of his former self but to reboot it entirely. The platform, which once thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic as a hub for connections and local recommendations, has since slowed down and faced accusations of toxic content.
"We don't bring a founder back to incrementally change something," Tolia said, "we bring a founder back to reboot something." Rebooting is a more difficult task than booting, requiring significant changes in direction.
Tolia's turnaround strategy focuses on making Nextdoor more local and useful. A new alert system warns residents about emergencies, while partnerships with over 3,500 local publications bring geographically tailored news directly into users' feeds. Artificial intelligence (A.I.) sits at the heart of this effort.
The new A.I. agent draws from the platform's vast archive of posts to provide contextual responses to user questions. It also powers personalized feeds and offers writing suggestions, including "kindness reminders" to encourage civility when users draft posts. The goal is to counterbalance complaints with more uplifting or informative content, such as community events and local news.
Curbing negativity is a major focus for Tolia's team. Negative posts make up less than 1% of all content on Nextdoor but dominate discussions. To address this, the team aims to consistently introduce content types that are not about complaining but about delight.
Tolia believes that A.I. can strengthen real-world community ties by encouraging users to connect with their neighbors and engage in local life. This is particularly important in a world where people are losing connection to the physical world.
Early feedback on the redesign has been largely positive, according to Tolia. However, he acknowledges that Nextdoor faces a long road ahead and is "very far from cracking the code." The company's stock price has fallen over 80% since its IPO, but Tolia is confident in his turnaround strategy.
. I mean, who wouldn't want a social app that's actually helpful and doesn't make you feel like you're stuck in a toxic conversation loop? 
The new AI-powered alert system sounds like a great idea - it's about time we get some emergency alerts instead of just neighborhood gossip 
. And partnerships with local pubs? That's just genius 
(I'm pretty sure that's what Nirav Tolia said, not me 
). Seriously though, I hope this reboot actually works and Nextdoor becomes the go-to platform for connecting with neighbors again 
. Fingers crossed! 
. As a neighbor myself, I think it's about time we got more useful and less toxic content on the platform. Those "kindness reminders" are a nice touch 
. But, let's be real, it's gonna take some serious work to fix the negativity problem. 1% of all posts but dominating discussions? That's a tough nut to crack 
. I'm curious to see how this new A.I. agent will shake things up and encourage more community engagement. Can't wait to try out these changes and see if they make a difference in my neighborhood 
.
. But, 3k local publications is a big ask... how do they plan to manage that?
they're trying to make it more local and useful which sounds like exactly what i need after living in a super small town where everyone knows each other's business 
but seriously how cool is it that they're using AI to provide contextual responses and kindness reminders 
i can already imagine myself not posting those annoying negative comments anymore lol anyway i'm hoping this new direction will help me meet some new ppl in my neighborhood who share similar interests