Thought Industries launches Lens to catch conflicting product knowledge before customers see it

The product addresses knowledge silos inside companies, where customer and product information remains in the systems of the teams that produced it. Because AI tools answer customer questions from many of those separate sources, the same question can produce two different answers, according to Thought Industries. Customers caught between those answers use less of the product.

Lens connects to existing repositories, including help centers and product documentation, without requiring the material to move. A governed knowledge layer sits on top, with agents looking for sources that disagree. Businesses set trust rules in plain language. When a product changes, the agents work to update affected guidance.

Customers can receive answers from Lens inside the product or through an AI assistant of their choice. The agents can also complete workflows, and logged questions show businesses where customers repeatedly run into trouble.

Thought Industries said conflict checking between sources is missing from existing tools. It described Model Context Protocol connectors and AI built into individual systems as mainly finding information. CEO Irana Wasti said search and retrieval alone do not determine which source is right.

"When every agent is working from a different version of product knowledge, they can simply spread wrong answers faster," Wasti said. Customers who get the information they need "use more, buy more and stay longer," she said.

The Linux Foundation, which runs training and certification programs for open-source software, plans to use Lens. Clyde Seepersad, senior vice president and general manager of education there, said the information its users search for often sits in systems beyond the courseware. The foundation keeps control over what gets surfaced, he said, and incoming questions should give it "a much clearer picture of what customers need."

Thought Industries is also changing how it describes its own business. It now names customer and product leaders as its audience and centers its pitch on turning scattered knowledge into a competitive advantage. Academy continues to run courses, learning paths and certifications, with AI recommending what a learner should take next.

Lens is available now in beta. Thought Industries is private-equity-backed and has sold customer training software since 2013. Luminate Capital Partners made a strategic growth investment in the company in 2019.

Editor's Summary

Thought Industries has launched Lens in beta as part of a new Customer Knowledge AI Platform, aiming to resolve conflicting product information before customers receive it. The company says the tool can update guidance when products change and show where customers struggle, while the Linux Foundation plans to test it. Thought Industries is also repositioning its business around customer and product leaders and its Academy course software.