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The problem

Developers using Auth0’s identity platform routinely lost hours switching between the dashboard and documentation to configure security settings. The goal was to embed a conversational AI assistant directly into the product, so developers could get accurate, actionable guidance without breaking their flow.

What I did

I took over as design lead for the GA release, building on an early exploratory concept. Two rounds of internal alpha testing shaped most of the core decisions.

Trust was the first real problem. Users appreciated the speed but hesitated to act without being able to verify what the AI told them.

I want to take the action myself. I want to see what else is around it, not just have it turned on for me.

That pushed me toward two principles: anchor sources directly into the response stream so users could check facts without leaving the conversation, and keep every change user-initiated. Guide onboards by explaining what it does and what it draws on, then proposes actions the user explicitly confirms. It never flips settings on someone’s behalf.

Two Guide panels side by side: a welcome screen titled 'Welcome to Auth0 Guide' that explains what Guide answers, how it works, and its AI safeguards, with a 'Start using Guide' button; and a chat answer about setting up a Datadog log stream that ends with an explicit 'Create Datadog Log Stream' action button.
Onboarding sets expectations. Guide hands over user-initiated actions rather than acting on its own.

The second issue was hallucination. When prompted with impossible configurations, the AI would sometimes invent steps. Rather than hide this, I leaned on suggested prompts that steered users toward answerable questions, and grounded responses in copy-ready code and source links, so confidence came from something verifiable, not just fluent prose.

Three Guide panels: a welcome state offering suggested starter questions like enabling MFA or verifying a custom domain; an answer about Auth0 with follow-up 'Watch' video suggestions; and an answer about email verification that includes a syntax-highlighted Post-Login Action code block.
Suggested prompts steer users toward answerable questions, and responses include copy-ready code.

To accelerate validation, I deployed the interface to an internal staging environment before production infrastructure existed. This let us test live components against the AI months ahead of schedule, iterating on streaming response states and rate-limiting behavior in real conditions.

The outcome

Guide launched in public beta across the platform. Key deliverables:

  • Collapsible chat drawer optimized for multitasking
  • Inline action pills that populated configuration fields directly from chat responses
  • Tenant Security Manager that answered security questions with live tenant data
  • Quarterly snapshots recapping usage and key outcomes, giving customers and account teams a clear view of value at renewal
  • Citation system that measurably improved user trust scores in follow-up testing
A Guide conversation answering 'How many bot attacks happened today?' with a summary of two blocked bot attacks and a line chart titled 'Bot Detection Events - June 10, 2025' showing traffic spikes, plus suggested follow-up questions about IP addresses and targeted connections.
The Tenant Security Manager surfaces live tenant insights, like blocked bot attacks.

Guide also surfaces recommendations and value in context. Ask how to harden an account and the Tenant Security Manager joins the session to help enable the right protection. At the end of each quarter, a snapshot recaps usage and key outcomes, so customers can see the value they’ve realized and account teams have a concrete story at renewal.

Two Guide panels: a 'Your quarterly snapshot' report card dated October 1, 2025 with a 'View snapshot' button; and a conversation where a user asks which security features to turn on to stop unauthorized account sign-ups, the Tenant Security Manager joins the session to help, and Guide recommends turning on adaptive 'When Risky' CAPTCHA with a 'Confirm Selection' button.
Quarterly snapshots recap usage and key outcomes so customers know where they stand at renewal. Also shown is the Tenant Security Manager that steps in to help protect user accounts.
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