Will AI agents make in-app product tours obsolete?
No. AI agents will not make product tours obsolete. They will take over the job tours were weakest at: walking each new user through real setup. Tours will keep the jobs they do well, like short feature announcements, one-step hints and simple checklists on a screen that rarely changes. Expect fewer, shorter tours, with an agent such as Obi doing the setup work.
Our view
Cor builds an AI onboarding agent, so we have a side in this. Here is our honest view.
Product tours were asked to do two jobs. One is pointing: "here is the new reports tab". Tours do that well. The other is setup: connecting an integration, importing data, choosing settings that depend on the customer. Tours struggle here, because every customer's setup is a bit different and a fixed path cannot answer a question.
AI agents are built for the second job. They see the user's screen, follow the user's goal and answer questions as they go. So the setup tour is the part that goes away. The pointing tour stays. Our comparison of agents and tours covers how each one works in detail.
Which tour jobs move to an agent
| Tour job | Moves to an agent? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Feature announcement | No | One short message to many users. A tour does this well |
| One-step hint on a screen | No | Quick to show. No conversation needed |
| Checklist for a simple product | Mostly no | If users can finish by clicking through, keep it |
| Multi-step setup walkthrough | Yes | Setup differs by customer. Users need answers along the way |
| Integration or data import | Yes | Often happens outside your app, where a tour cannot follow |
| Help when a user is stuck | Yes | A tour cannot see why the user is stuck |
What to do with your tours now
- List your live tours. Note which job each one does.
- Keep the announcements and hints. They still work.
- Find the long setup tours. Check how many users finish them, and whether those users finish setup.
- Test an agent on one setup flow. Compare setup completion with users who got the tour.
- Retire a tour only when the agent does better. Not before.
Where Cor fits
Obi is Cor's AI onboarding agent. It takes the setup job. A new user starts a live session, shares their screen and Obi guides setup step by step, answering questions along the way. Where you permit it, Obi completes steps on their behalf.
Obi learns from your help docs and a recording of your key workflows, so there are no setup tours to build. When a user needs a person, Obi hands over to your team with the context. Teams using Obi see up to 2.5x faster onboarding.
If your tour tool works well for announcements and hints, keep it.
See AI user onboarding tools for product-led SaaS.
To compare live setup options, see our guide to the best AI onboarding agents.
How to choose
- If your tours mostly announce features, keep them.
- If your tours try to walk users through setup and users still stall, test an agent on that flow.
- If your product is simple enough to learn by clicking through, tours may be all you need.
- Many teams run both: tours for announcements, an agent for setup.
Frequently asked questions
Will AI agents replace product tours?
Not all of them. Agents take the setup walkthroughs. Tours keep announcements, hints and simple checklists.
Are product tours still worth building?
For short announcements and hints on a screen that rarely changes, yes. For long setup flows, test an agent first.
Can an AI agent and product tours run in the same app?
Yes. Many teams use tours to point at new features and an agent to guide setup.
Do AI agents need tours to work?
Not Obi. It learns from your help docs and workflow recordings, not from tour flows.
What should we measure when we swap a setup tour for an agent?
Setup completion and time to first value, compared with users who got the tour.