GoFundMe, Inc.: AI Opportunities?

When Arnie Katz (Darden MBA ’09) joined privately held GoFundMe, Inc. (GoFundMe), as chief product and technology officer in August 2023, he asked one simple question: “How are we using artificial intelligence?” The question came nine months after OpenAI had released an early version of ChatGPT. Katz and Karan Khurana, product leader at GoFundMe, examined the process steps to start and activate a fundraising campaign (what they called the “create funnel”) and in doing so pulled together data on time spent at each process step and on drop-off rates, meaning the number of people who logged in to start a fundraising campaign but ultimately stopped at some point in the process. What opportunities did AI offer GoFundMe? This field-based case offers a history of GoFundMe and an overview of its processes. At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, it is taught in the second-year elective “Digital Operations Strategy” and in the core operations course in the first year. It would also be suitable in any course seeking to examine how generative AI can change core business processes and push students to rethink and not just automate.