Outlook Drive resident Marty Bacik, who says he has been a “serial entrepreneur” for most of his life, can thank his mother, Bonnie Bacik, for his most recent project. PartyLine is an app that enables groups of people to stay in touch with a minimum amount of effort, and Bonnie’s role was a comment to her son about how challenging it is to keep up with all the people in their lives.

“She said, ‘This artificial intelligence thing seems pretty cool. What if you could make a newsletter where everyone in the group writes in and says what’s going on with their lives, and AI will compile that and make a newsletter to send out to everyone,’” Bacik recalled.  “So that’s where the idea really came from.”

Group members receive an email every week or month — whatever timeframe they choose. The email contains a link that takes the reader to a page with three questions, which will be different each time. Type in a few words to answer the questions, hit submit, “and AI takes it from there,” Bacik said.

For example: “If the question was, ‘Did you try any new restaurants in the past week,’ I could say ‘Yes, I tried this place called Umami in Lawrenceville,’ and that’s all I say. AI will take the information and say, ‘Marty had a new culinary experience this week and tried a restaurant called Umami in Lawrenceville,’ and add some color around that.

“It takes a lot of the legwork out of keeping up with people because the intent was, this should be quick, this should be automatic, because no one wants to type a full update.”

The group members then receive an email with their completed newsletter attached.

Bacik currently does not charge for the service, but said if it grows significantly, the idea would be to make money off of it, perhaps from a monthly subscription. PartyLine is still pretty much in the trial stage, as just a few groups are trying it.

“My gauge is always, if I can get one person to use a product, I will be thrilled,” he said. “So I’ve been super psyched that there have been a couple of different parties using it on a weekly basis, and have been submitting what’s going on with them. It’s neat to see that happening.”

Bacik says PartyLine is a good tool for families that want to keep in touch with members who are scattered, and companies where people leave, but colleagues are accustomed to being involved in their lives every day and want to keep in touch.

“I’ve heard a lot of ways AI can be used maliciously, but I think unequivocally this is a good use of technology to form connections and enable people to stay in touch with those who matter most to them. I’m really proud that this is using the technology for good.”