Interview Questions › AI Product

Does this problem even need AI?

A leader at Zerodha wants "an AI chatbot that tells users which stocks to buy". Walk me through how you would respond and what you would build instead, if anything.

Context

Investment advice is regulated by SEBI. Zerodha's brand is built on not pushing users to trade more.

Clarifying questions to ask first

• What user problem is behind the request?
• What are the regulatory limits?
• What does the leader want to achieve?

How to approach it

1. Start from the user problem, not the model: is AI the right tool here?
2. Describe the experience and where the model fits in it
3. Define what "good output" means and how you would evaluate it before and after launch
4. Name the failure modes (wrong answers, bias, privacy, cost) and how you contain them
5. Close with a launch plan and success metrics

Framework: User and problem -> Is AI the right tool? -> Experience design and human-in-the-loop -> Quality bar and evaluation -> Risks, cost and latency -> Staged launch and metrics

Sample answer

• Separate the user need (understanding, confidence) from the proposed solution
• Regulatory and brand risk of advice
• Safer AI uses: explaining terms, summarising filings, answering account questions

1. Identify user problems from support tickets
2. Choose a low-risk, high-volume use case
3. Measure support deflection and answer accuracy

Push back on stock tips as a regulatory and brand risk. Build an assistant that explains concepts, documents and account questions grounded in Zerodha content, measured by support deflection and accuracy.

What interviewers look for

• User outcomes
• Regulatory compliance
• Support deflection