“Avaamo’s goal is to make conversational computing for the enterprise a reality.” Ram Menon, CEO & Founder, Avaamo.
Brief us about the company. What prompted the founders to start a Tech company?
Avaamo is a deep-learning software company that specializes in conversational interfaces to solve specific, high impact problems in the enterprise. Much of the technology in this area had to be invented. We have developed fundamental AI technology across a broad area of neural networks, speech synthesis and deep learning to make conversational computing for the enterprise a reality. With seven patents and counting, we are building a new technology stack.
We provide an enterprise AI platform that tightly integrates tooling, data, and enterprise connectors to ensure designers, data scientists, and developers can design and deploy complex conversational applications in weeks.
We felt that the next great jump in enterprise software is conversational interfaces to talk and ask questions in enterprise systems. The rise of conversational interfaces whether in the enterprise or consumers, is a secular trend in human computer interaction. It is the first significant change after the invention of the browser. That idea germinated in us, ultimately leading to the foundation of Avaamo. We wanted to build a new platform to offer Conversation-as-a-service (CaaS) as a new kind of infrastructure.
Tell us about the services you provide through your venture.
Avaamo is one of the leading conversational interface providers to banking, insurance, and telcos in India. Many financial institutions choose Avaamo to implement conversational AI based interfaces using our technology due to our security, integration, back end systems and patented method to converse intelligently.
To deliver on conversational AI’s promise, fundamentally new technology has to be built to perform multi-turn discussions and execute intensive judgment tasks just like humans. When you can do this, you can revolutionize businesses. Companies can streamline and improve their service desk and drastically improve customer care; insurers can generate quotes in minutes, and health care providers can help diabetics or cardiovascular patients better by monitoring their health care through a virtual assistant on an app.
Who are your target customer segments?
Avaamo was built for a global business audience, not a single target customer segment. We support multiple languages and multiple verticals. Our platform was created for a diverse set of users and people across the globe. Success is based in part on how businesses cater to a global audience. We’ve learned that people prefer to interact in their own languages, and they want to experience brands in their own language.
It quickly become clear to us that there is no monolithic AI market. AI is being applied to solve problems across industries and depending on the value proposition investors are looking for real tangible benefits of the technology in terms of “making” money or “saving” money.
What is the USP of your company that renders its difference from its competitors?
Avaamo has developed fundamental AI technology across a broad area of neural networks, speech synthesis and deep learning to make conversational computing for the enterprise a reality.
We offer two solutions: (1) Virtual Assistants and (2) Conversational IVR based on a patented platform we call “Conversation as a Service”.
Our enterprise AI platform dramatically simplifies the time needed to design and deploy virtual assistants to corporate employees and their customers. Avaamo’s tightly integrated platform uniquely combines tooling, data, and enterprise connectors to ensure designers, data scientists, and developers can design and deploy complex conversational interfaces in weeks.
Our industry-first capabilities include a comprehensive, easy-to-use AI platform offers services like a comprehensive NLP based AI engine; behavior libraries designed to detect hate, frustration, praise and a gamut of other emotions; deep domain machine learning models in banking, insurance, telco, and healthcare; integration to legacy systems and systems of record; broad deployment options — deploy to messaging solutions, websites and portals; enterprise-grade security, entitlements, and scalability including HIPAA & GDPR compliance.
Brief us about the future of the company or the goal it has set to mark its exceptionality in future.
Our plans are simple: help Avaamo become a crucial component of reinventing how business is conducted in the 21st century. Conversational AI will radically overhaul customer service and free human time and talent for different and more engaging jobs.
To push ahead to various areas where conversational interfaces can be implanted in the enterprise. We believe Virtual Assistants are going to change the way customers, employees, and stakeholders interact with one another in the business world. We’re committed to making it incredibly easy for businesses to implement this paradigm shift in user computing.
Share some success stories/ milestones, awards and accolades that the company has received.
Avaamo has over 50+ enterprise customers in India including Honeywell, Wipro, SBI Mutual Funds, Reliance Nippon, Reliance Capital, HDFC Loans, ICICI prudential, IFFCO-Tokyo, Birla Sunlife, Aditya Birla Capital, Axis bank, City Union Bank, RBL, Ashok Leyland, India First, and many more. Avaamo virtual assistants are deployed at banking, insurance, and manufacturing customers in 40+ countries and 8 languages.
Our latest announcements include: Tech Mahindra and Avaamo Partner to take Conversational AI Platform to Global Markets. Avaamo raised a $14.2 million Series A financing round led by Intel Capital with additional investment from Ericsson Ventures, Mahindra Partners, Wipro Ventures and WI Harper. This funding brings the company’s total investment to $23.5 million to date.
With the massive advancements in technology, what are the opportunities and challenges evolving with it?
Blockchain for distributed ledger technology will redefine the way we think about “trust” and is poised for a sea change in how it’s being implemented.
Managing privacy and user data is a huge problem that has not been solved well. I think this is an area which will see a lot of changes in the coming years. As a result one can expect companies, regulatory organizations and even governments to start pushing for more “protection” of data.
