What is AI user onboarding?

The short answer

AI user onboarding is software that does, inside your product, what your best onboarding specialist does on a kickoff call: it greets each new user, learns what their company came to do, walks them through the steps that matter to them on the live product, answers their questions as they go, and, when they ask, does the task for them.

Barkan is AI user onboarding for SaaS products. It installs with one script tag, talks each user through the product by voice or in chat, and moves a live cursor to the real controls while they do each step with their own hands.

Why do SaaS teams move to AI user onboarding?

Your biggest accounts get a person who walks them through their own account. Everyone else gets an empty dashboard, a checklist and a tour to click through. AI onboarding closes that gap:

• Every signup gets a guided start, planned from what their company does, not only the accounts large enough for a kickoff call.

• Activation rarely dies at signup. It dies later, on the second workflow, and the guide is still in the product when that happens.

• Support gets fewer how-to questions, and the ones that remain arrive with the user’s context already written up.

How does AI user onboarding work?

1. Paste one script tag. It shows up only on the pages you allow.

2. Give it what you know: your help center, your documentation, your notes.

3. Describe the tour in a sentence. Barkan runs it live for every new user, by voice and with a cursor on the real controls, and adapts it to what each one has already done.

4. Read what came back: completed onboardings, the questions users asked, and where they got stuck.

How is it different from product tours, checklists and chatbots?

What should you look for in an AI onboarding tool?

• Planned from the user, not from a script: what their company does decides what they are shown first.

• Grounded in the live page, not only in documentation, so the answer matches what the user actually sees.

• Shows, then does: it points at the control, and takes the action when asked. Anything that deletes, pays or changes access waits for the user’s Accept.

• Speaks the user’s language: Barkan’s widget speaks 10 languages.

• Hands off cleanly: when it cannot help, it writes the report from the user’s side, console errors attached, and sends it to your team’s inbox.

• Priced on outcomes: with Barkan you pay per completed onboarding and per successful conversation, never per seat.

Questions people ask

Is AI user onboarding the same as a product tour?

No. A product tour plays the same steps for everyone, laid over your app. AI onboarding talks each user through the real product, adapts to their account and their questions, and keeps helping after the tour ends.

Does AI onboarding replace our onboarding or customer success team?

No. It gives every user the guided start your team can only give the largest accounts, and hands your team the cases that need a person, with the context already written up.

How long does it take to set up Barkan?

Minutes. Paste one script tag before the closing body tag of your product, or hand the task to a coding agent from the dashboard. Barkan shows up only on the pages you allow.

What does Barkan cost?

You pay for what Barkan finishes: $1.50 per completed onboarding and $0.60 per successful conversation. An onboarding someone abandons costs nothing. Every site starts with $25 in credits and no card. No seats, no contract.

Can it take actions for users?

Yes, when a user asks. Anything that deletes, pays or changes access waits for the user’s Accept.

See how Barkan onboards every signup on the onboarding page, or how it compares with Appcues, Pendo and WalkMe on the alternatives page.