The a16z Show · Tuesday, September 29, 2026
David Pawlan created 'Assistant Benchmark,' a consumer-facing platform that compares AI assistants based on their performance across various use cases. The site has seen over 100,000 visitors and significant outreach from founders, indicating strong industry curiosity.
“Assistant benchmark is a site that essentially compares all these AI assistants on a use case basis. So we're asking all of these assistants the same prompt: 'Book me a flight to Chicago, find me a vegetarian restaurant within five blocks of my specific location,' etcetera, etcetera.”
“We use the word benchmark, think of it more as a consumer facing benchmark, not necessarily technical behind the scenes. But if I want to book a flight, which one should I actually use, who is performing the best, how fast are they actually replying?”
“Website has had over 100,000 visitors, we've had outreach from basically every single founder. And I think it really just goes to show, like, everyone's curious.”