At first glance, DFIRST seems amazing, so I was excited to test out the tool. Before diving in, I watched all their YouTube videos (which isn't much tbh), and then tried using the tool on some ongoing projects we have.

Initially, the tools seems fantastic: it does an amazing job at understanding what I want, and lays out a clear path (that I can also edit!) to achieve the goals I'm looking for. The fact that it also uses multiple AI models, and always recommends the best model for the job is also great.

So, that's the good part...

Now the bad:

1) The training is VERY surface level and incomplete. This means that I a) either need to be a pro at AI agents & workflows already to make things work, or b) waste TONS of credits to figure things out on my own. I'd appreciate a comprehensive onboarding & training experience to get up to speed with DFIRST without having to waste multiple hours of my time, and hundreds (or even thousands) of credits on trying to figure things out on my own with substandard results.

2) The AI workflows/agents aren't as smart as they seem... And by this, I mean many things – just a few examples:
• I asked them to scrape a website and Instagram to understand the brand's colors, language, fonts, and content pillars. They scraped both (apparently successfully), but still used DFIRST's colors, still used English as the language (despite the particular website being in a different language), still just guessed the fonts (incorrectly), and completely missed the content pillars, formats, and visual style. And all this happened multiple times...
• The tool fails to establish a clear, logical workflow... By this, I mean that oftentimes it doesn't reference crucial information or inputs on its own, and wastes A LOT of credits by doing so. Yes, I could technically go in manually and tweak things afterwards, but a) that takes time, and b) that means I've just wasted ~100-200 credits on useless garbage.
• Its foreign language skills are not excellent. Not bad either per se, but it does make errors in languages other than English (so far, I've tried 2 other European languages). Mostly weird capitalization errors, so not that big of a deal, but still...

3) The output is just plain bad. For customer research, I've achieved better results using a single prompt in Gemini Pro alone. The social media posts created in DFIRST are downright terrible. In fact, even within a single workflow, the visual style, the tone of voice, and even the language (!!!) of some of the posts generated are completely different. Let that sink in: the same brand, the same prompt(s), the same workflow. And the 3 posts generated look like posts for 3 different brands, operating in 3 different geographical regions (and one of those completely missed the brand's product, displaying it as a supplement, when in fact, it was a diagnostics product). Not to mention that the posts I've managed to create are terrible as well: lazy, boring, and definitely no potential for engagement, virality, etc.

4) DFIRST is very credit-hungry. I bought the top tier, and already – just by playing around with a few basic workflows (no videos, and barely any images), I've spent about 20% of my monthly credits. Yes, I know there's a relatively inexpensive way to top up my credits, and I also know the tool needs to be sustainable in the long-run... But for the ~$800 I've spent on this tool, I'd be able to buy A LOT of credits, or even multiple years of unlimited subscriptions to mature, established AI tools. At this credit consumption rate, DFIRST feels almost like a ripoff.

5) And finally: while I wasn't affected personally, I see the founders launched a similar tool on AppSumo a few years ago that they've since abandoned. I don't know what happened to their old customers, but after a quick Google search (Digitalfirst Appsumo), I've found the following:
• Customers suddenly losing access to their dashboard (apparently without a warning) – Does this mean they've also lost access to all their generated assets, prompts, databases, and references?
• Customers complaining that there's no clear way to transfer their account to DFIRST, despite it being more-or-less a mature & rebranded version of the same product. – Does this mean that those customers were abandoned?
• Customers complaining about terrible customer support. – Does this mean we can expect a similar experience with DFIRST, especially once the AppSumo campaign (and refund period) are over?
Look, I'm not saying those customers are necessarily right (I have no idea), and I'm not saying us DFIRST customers are in for a bad experience (I certainly hope not) – but this is definitely a red flag that I think all Sumolings should be aware of.

All-in-all, I'll see how DFIRST evolves over the upcoming weeks. What I'm really looking for is a complete onboarding/training experience to ensure I can use the tool as intended. And I also hope they can improve the quality of the AI outputs significantly.