Growth & CRO

AI image greetings lifted feature engagement by 168%

2026-08-16 · 7 min read

The short answer

A dormant "Send Greetings" feature became a +168% engagement story when we fused Gemini image-gen into it. The unlock was geo-segmentation: 27 festivals across five Indian regions, surfaced at the right moment in the merchant's existing workflow. The AI part did the artwork; the calendar did the work.

Soft SaaS features die by neglect. Send Greetings in LiveKeeping PRO+ was exactly that: technically present, practically unused. The teams kept shipping heavy, but the light portal was dark.

Why it sat unused

  • The feature existed for years but had no reason to be opened.
  • Every greeting-launched list was static; no "when".
  • Nothing surprised the user into trying the generator.

The AI reinvention

We integrated Google Gemini Flash (image), the 'Nano Banana' so users could build a festival card instantly — no design skills, no assets, no excuses.

But the model alone doesn't fix engagement. The timing inventory did:

  • A geo-segmented festival calendar across five Indian regions
  • 27 occasions — Diwali, Durga, JAYs, Bihu, others — each assigned the right messaging and template
  • Triggers placed where users already worked: send-time reminders, invoice completions

The numbers

| Metric | Before | After | | --- | --- | --- | | Feature engagement | dormant | +168% | | Occasions surfaced | ~1 national | 27 geo-segmented | | Regions | 1 | 5 |

Users didn't adopt an AI generator. They adopted a card for the occasion before them — the AI was the paint, the timing was the purchase.

What I'd do differently

  • Air the calendar earlier. The 5-region mapping should've shipped before we raised the model; geo-accuracy was the real feature.
  • Test the greeting door. Our best surface was a banner inside a richer notification — I'd A/B it against "merchant made a bill → invite to wish a client" earlier.

The full build is in the Send Greetings + Nano Banana case study. It pairs well with the push notification architecture this automated: timing and geo are 90% of the lift.

Frequently asked questions

What makes an AI feature actually used?+
Crawl-through, not novelty: a one-line image generation fused into an existing habit (sending festival wishes) beat a lobby feature.
How do you geo-segment festival greetings?+
Five Indian regions each have their own festival calendar; we mapped 27 occasions so nothing sent an one-size national blast.
How was feature engagement measured?+
Engaged users as a share of PRO+/PRO before vs after the AI launch. Same login floor, different feature taps: +168%.
S

Saswata S. Sengupta

PM at Upcore Technologies. Cut checkout abandonment 73.1% to 53.9%. IIT Jodhpur MBA. All posts are grounded in shipped work with published numbers.

Keep reading