1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:04,320 AI is reshaping customer communications with terms like 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:07,520 virtual workforce and AI receptionist. 3 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:11,600 I'm Michael Krigsman, and I spoke with Damon Covey from Go 4 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:16,400 to to explore how small companies can use AI agents to 5 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:21,080 improve both efficiency and customer service. 6 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:23,560 One of the main customer services challenges is being 7 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:27,120 able to communicate effectively with your customer over the 8 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:29,920 channel and the way they want to talk to you. 9 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,760 If a customer wants to text you, if they want to do reach out to 10 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,920 you via Instagram or Facebook, things of that nature, being 11 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:38,600 able to communicate with them that way. 12 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:40,840 And traditionally what that looked like for customers is 13 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:42,920 they got to go use all those different platforms to 14 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,000 communicate with those customers and they didn't have a way to do 15 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,600 that. Now there are solutions that 16 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:49,360 bring all of those things together. 17 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,600 So it makes both the employee experience or the business 18 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,200 experience and then also the end user experience as seamless as 19 00:00:57,200 --> 00:00:59,520 possible. So as customers needs to evolve, 20 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:01,840 we've added more and more channels and opportunities to 21 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,760 communicate over the years to to that cloud communication 22 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,880 solution or in the business of providing the opportunity to 23 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,120 talk to customers, to communicate with customers, 24 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:12,920 schedule appointments, things of that nature in the way that 25 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,480 customers want to talk with the company directly and that's it. 26 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:18,120 That's a challenge traditionally, especially for 27 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:20,560 smaller customers. Can you give us a few examples? 28 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:24,480 If you have a dentist practice and someone wants to communicate 29 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,680 with you and set an appointment, they're very often just going to 30 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,400 be doing whatever they do during the day and and a text is much 31 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,200 faster to set that appointment. So that's one example. 32 00:01:33,320 --> 00:01:35,720 Another example I can give you from my personal experience is I 33 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:37,640 had a pipe that burst in my basement. 34 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:39,320 I was trying to reach out and find a plumber. 35 00:01:39,320 --> 00:01:41,640 I didn't know a plumber. So I started calling down the 36 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:45,200 list of plumbers and the first one to text me back got my 37 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:47,000 business right. And so being able to communicate 38 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,600 again with the customers in the way they want to, the way 39 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:52,120 they're communicating in flow is a really critical part of 40 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:54,160 especially a small business practice. 41 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:58,320 So making it easier for customers to interact with the 42 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:00,960 business. Making it easier and then also 43 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,200 having it be integrated back into the systems they care 44 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,280 about, their CRM or other systems that they might be 45 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:09,000 working with, keeping them in those systems to make sure 46 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:10,800 they're tracking that information as well. 47 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:16,440 So the integration with their existing systems, their existing 48 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:21,480 processes is essential here. It's critical to make sure that 49 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:24,400 they can continue to do business the way they want to, but also 50 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:26,640 communicate with their customers in the way the customers want to 51 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:31,280 communicate with them. How can AI make this process 52 00:02:31,640 --> 00:02:36,800 easier, better, faster? AI has the opportunity to really 53 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:41,280 take, especially if you look at a small business, they are most 54 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:44,520 of the time multitasking, right? They're dealing with customers. 55 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:47,680 They're also dealing with things inside of that business. 56 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:50,320 And so they don't always have the opportunity to answer the 57 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:52,680 calls or answer the key questions, things of that 58 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:54,680 nature. They might actually lose some of 59 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:56,120 those customers that are calling in. 60 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,360 AI has the ability to be a force multiplier and answer the phones 61 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:04,560 as an example 24/7 for them, answer specific questions and 62 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,760 then transfer that information along with the caller when 63 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:10,400 appropriate to the right person who can help them and get that 64 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,720 to be a more efficient rocess. Damon, I've heard you use the 65 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:17,200 term virtual workforce. What? 66 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:21,320 Is that virtual workforce is essentially a way to harness AI 67 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:25,520 technology to do things that you would like a human be able to do 68 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,160 what they may not be available. If you think about humans in 69 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,040 your environment, they're not only answering calls and texts 70 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:32,960 and things of that nature, they're doing things also. 71 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:35,360 So you want to automate those repetitive tasks. 72 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:39,120 And so AI can take a lot of that over, can start to automate 73 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,800 that, whether it's answering the phone in some cases we talked 74 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,720 about whether it's possibly answering questions about 75 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:47,160 locations, hours, things of that nature. 76 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:52,000 So really use AI in a very smart and practical way to get into it 77 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,800 and automate those tasks. That's where you start to see 78 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:58,280 the AI virtual workforce emerge. And we'll see more of that as we 79 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:03,360 go into the future as well. We hear a lot about AI agents 80 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:08,560 and agentic AI. Is a virtual workforce the same 81 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:10,640 thing? It's a part of it. 82 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:14,320 So if you think about virtual workforce and agents, that's the 83 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:19,160 tip of the spear for answering calls, automating mundane tasks, 84 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:21,959 things of that nature. And what Agentic does is takes 85 00:04:21,959 --> 00:04:24,920 that information and takes action on that, right? 86 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,040 So if you need something to happen in somewhat of an 87 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,280 autonomous fashion, that's where a gentic AI can come into play. 88 00:04:31,280 --> 00:04:35,200 So for example, if you want to pull something out of ACRM and 89 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:38,560 then insert that back as you're talking to a caller, that would 90 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,640 be an example of a scientific AI on the front end. 91 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,040 And then it will get more sophisticated as we go forward 92 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:46,800 and and do more sophisticated options and advanced actions as 93 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,520 well. And so how is that different or 94 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:51,720 the same from the virtual workforce? 95 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:53,760 It's part and parcel to the same thing. 96 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:56,800 Virtual workforces will just mature over time. 97 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,280 So to be able to again, automate those tip of the spear tasks and 98 00:05:00,280 --> 00:05:04,120 then also to automate other tasks that are smarter, right, 99 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,280 that require connecting to multiple different systems, 100 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:09,680 require, you know, multiple different pieces of input. 101 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,520 That's where a gentic AI really has power is in connecting those 102 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:17,320 things together and automating A workflow to satisfy a particular 103 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:20,520 problem that might dip in and out of five or six systems, as 104 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:23,440 an example. And then how does the virtual 105 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:27,200 workforce relate to that workflow that you just 106 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:29,760 mentioned? Virtual workforce will be at the 107 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,000 front end of that. And so an example of that is a 108 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,600 receptionist be able to answer the call, understand the intent 109 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:39,000 of the caller, answer some simple questions, and then 110 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,760 potentially transfer that person over in the future. 111 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,480 We see that getting more and more sophisticated, whether you 112 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,240 can actually take actions as opposed to just answering the 113 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:49,280 call. That's how the two fit together. 114 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:53,120 You've just released an AI receptionist. 115 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:56,800 Tell us how that works. Air receptions is something that 116 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,200 anybody can add into their telephony system that will 117 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:02,720 answer phone calls for you. If you think about it, Michael, 118 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:07,040 the most challenging part of AI as as it relates to customer 119 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,760 communications is the voice section, right? 120 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:11,360 So that's what we took that one on. 1st. 121 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,400 What this allows you to do is put that at the front end or 122 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,960 frankly at the middle or even at the end of your telephone call 123 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,640 and answer that, answer that call, answer questions and 124 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,800 transfer that over to the appropriate person on your side 125 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,520 with the intent also summarized. So imagine, you know, before 126 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:30,320 you're just getting a call from someone out of the blue, you 127 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:31,520 don't know what they're calling about. 128 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,720 We can capture that information and transfer that over to 129 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:36,640 someone where they can actually understand what this person's 130 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:38,240 calling about. Are they upset or not? 131 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:39,480 Not what they're actually looking for. 132 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:42,400 And you can automatically know how to come out of the call and 133 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:44,240 how to better handle that in that call. 134 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:49,840 So the virtual receptionist interacts with the caller and 135 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:56,960 feeds information back upstream to a person who may or may not 136 00:06:57,240 --> 00:06:59,520 interact with that caller. Is this correct? 137 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:01,400 Yes, in many cases that's correct. 138 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:05,680 And we can also extend that a receptionist to answer again, 139 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:09,560 common questions, right? So if you want to help that AI 140 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,640 learn over time by feeding it information that it should 141 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,480 answer as you start to observe what's happening and start to 142 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:18,240 observe that. But yes, ultimately it probably 143 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:21,800 ends in some human interaction. And the idea is to augment the 144 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:24,360 human interaction with the caller and make that at 145 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:26,480 resolution as speedy as possible. 146 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:33,040 So to some degree, the virtual workforce is an autonomous 147 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:36,920 process that interacts with the caller. 148 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:41,040 Absolutely, on its own. It will, with your permission of 149 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:44,200 course, answer those calls, answer those questions. 150 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:47,960 But it can be, and it does operate within its sphere of 151 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:51,080 influence, autonomous from someone else actually having to 152 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,320 manually take that call or take an action. 153 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,120 And so there's a set of boundaries that are built in. 154 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:58,480 You mentioned scope or sphere of action. 155 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:00,200 Correct. That's a really important part 156 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:03,040 of this actually, Michael, is what we don't want to do is just 157 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:06,920 wire an AI receptionist to an LLL, right? 158 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,640 That would be a bad idea because it might actually give some bad 159 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:12,840 information or something that you weren't expecting it to. 160 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:17,480 So making sure you tune the air receptionist to give the proper 161 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:20,600 information only with the guardrails you wanted to and 162 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,200 starting with a very scoped set of of responsibilities and 163 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,680 building up from there is is the way to to help it learn with 164 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:31,000 your system. So the set of boundaries is 165 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:33,080 vitally important here. Absolutely. 166 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:35,120 It's probably the most critical part of this to make sure. 167 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,760 And again, what I always tell people is or something 168 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:41,240 practical, start with something that's a simple problem that's 169 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:43,640 repeatable, that you can solve over and over again that you 170 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:47,760 feel good about an AI receptionist talking about. 171 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,640 And then build up from there as you start to see how those 172 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:52,400 reactions are going as you go forward. 173 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:56,160 Damon, what benefits does a virtual workforce bring to go 174 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:58,880 To's customers? So it starts with really the 175 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,960 ability to have any interaction handled 24 by 7. 176 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:06,040 So if you've got your employees that are doing something else 177 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:07,920 and they can't answer the call, that's number one. 178 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:12,840 The other thing is ensuring that you can free those employees up 179 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:16,120 to do higher value things, more beneficial things and look at 180 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:18,720 other opportunities within within your environment. 181 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,360 So if they're doing the same thing over and over again, now 182 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:23,800 we can free them up to do that. And then I would say the other 183 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,440 thing is really just making sure that because you're answering 184 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:29,960 swiftly and giving them feedback right away, really enhancing 185 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:33,000 customer satisfaction from the end user perspective, they're 186 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:34,920 getting information they need faster than they would have 187 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:38,040 previously. This notion of improving 188 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:41,280 customer service for the caller is really important. 189 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,680 Can you elaborate on that? With an AI receptionist or or 190 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:49,240 AI, you have the ability to guarantee the response that the, 191 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:52,120 that the user or the caller in this case is getting. 192 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,680 And so that gives them the ability to automatically have 193 00:09:55,680 --> 00:09:57,160 their call answered at all times. 194 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,720 So that that's number one is, is a primary benefit. 195 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:01,800 And then to get a guaranteed answer. 196 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:05,160 And what that is and if they need to be have a guaranteed way 197 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:08,200 of getting interaction. So those are all three things 198 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,480 that customers are looking for that immediate response. 199 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:13,200 They want that immediate interaction. 200 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,280 People don't wait anymore to get feedback from companies they 201 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:18,840 want to do business with, and this gives them that immediate 202 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,280 feedback. How is this different or more 203 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,040 beneficial than traditional customer service channels? 204 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:27,080 Traditional customer service channels always need a human 205 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:29,560 intervention and this is not meant to replace that human 206 00:10:29,560 --> 00:10:31,720 intervention. What this does is helps you 207 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,560 scale your business, right? And so that's where it's special 208 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:38,040 is again, if you're a, if you're a small customer, part of what 209 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:40,920 you're doing is just, you know, the business of making sure that 210 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:43,720 your business is done and scaling it, making sure you can 211 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:46,160 answer all those calls, making sure those they were having to 212 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:48,560 have an agent behind every single call. 213 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:51,440 And again, freeing up those agents to do more, higher 214 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:55,560 interaction, better sales process, better service process, 215 00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:57,600 things of that nature. That's really what this is about 216 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,120 is augmenting your human workforce so that they can do 217 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,720 things that are higher value again to the to the company on 218 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:04,920 the back end. So there is an efficiency 219 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:12,680 benefit to the go to customer and a service benefit to the end 220 00:11:12,680 --> 00:11:16,520 user that's calling in. Correct, You definitely get a 221 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,440 benefit both ways. In terms of accuracy, in terms 222 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:22,720 of of how fast the call is answered, in terms of how fast 223 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:26,160 it's responded to, which will by itself gain you a higher 224 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:28,760 satisfaction rate. Damon, let's talk about 225 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:30,920 deployment. What is involved with 226 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:33,640 implementing or deploying this kind of system? 227 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:35,440 That's a critical decision factor. 228 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,080 Small customers have not had the ability to, you know, capture 229 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,440 something off the shelf, like implement that on their own. 230 00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:45,120 So the AI receptionist, as an example, introduces the ability 231 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,880 to have a small and simple operation that you can feed 232 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:52,280 things like K BS knowledge base articles as an example. 233 00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:55,760 We can feed FAQs into, right? We can start to actually put 234 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:57,400 questions in there, things of that nature. 235 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:01,040 So it makes it very, very easy and practical to get up and 236 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:03,560 going off the ground. And then I think the other thing 237 00:12:03,560 --> 00:12:06,280 that's really important about this, Michael, is you can 238 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:08,760 observe the system over time as well. 239 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:11,080 So that's a critical differentiator also is it's, 240 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:13,880 yes, it's easy to get up and running, but can I see how it's 241 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:16,080 actually doing? Can I, can I see how the 242 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:18,560 customers are responding to it? Can I listen to the calls? 243 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,120 All the above is there. And so you can tune that as you 244 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:22,680 go. Both of those things are 245 00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:24,320 critical factors in implementation. 246 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,520 When you say see what the system is doing, can you elaborate on 247 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:29,400 that? Yes, one of the most critical 248 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:32,320 things with any communication system is is you can run 249 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:35,920 analytics and and you can start to see things like word cloud of 250 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:38,200 was someone angry, right? Did someone, you know, say 251 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:39,480 something that they shouldn't have, right? 252 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:41,560 Are they happy? And so digging into that and 253 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:44,480 seeing what those interactions actually consisted of and 254 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:46,120 listening to the call if you need to. 255 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:50,440 So that gives you the ability to run quality metrics against your 256 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,120 environment, which usually is reserved for very large 257 00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:54,800 corporations. That is one of the biggest 258 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:58,600 barriers to entry to having anybody, whether it's an agent 259 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:02,560 or an AI interface, in this case answer calls, is understand that 260 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:05,280 quality behind the scenes. And because of the AI, I'm 261 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:08,520 assuming that this turn around is very fast. 262 00:13:08,680 --> 00:13:11,280 Almost immediate the call is recorded if you want it to be 263 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:13,280 and then the call is is brought forward. 264 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:18,000 And then we, we actually use AI to do a summary analysis of that 265 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,960 and it almost immediately you will see what happened and you 266 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:24,280 can drill into that and diagnose what, what occurred with that 267 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,120 interaction. Damon, what's involved with 268 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:29,040 deploying this kind of system? The key here is to making the 269 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,400 system easy to deploy and so making it practical to deploy. 270 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:34,680 So what you would do is you would just start feeding in 271 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:37,160 knowledge base articles. It can crawl your website 272 00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:39,560 information, information. You can even put simple keywords 273 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:42,160 in there to say if you hear this, then say this, or if you 274 00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:45,600 hear this, transfer this to an operator or transfer this to a 275 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,040 salesperson. So really it's it's very 276 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:52,440 practical to set it up, it's very practical to have it learn 277 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:55,600 with you and only the things that you feed into it will it 278 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:57,040 actually be able to respond back to. 279 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:02,000 What about integration with existing systems and existing 280 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:04,000 business processes? A couple of things. 281 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,800 First off, it's very important to be able to integrate with 282 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:11,040 your human employees, right? We talked about the ability to 283 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:13,720 capture the sentiment of a call and make sure that gets 284 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:16,520 transferred onto a human. That's an important part about 285 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:18,080 this. But the other thing is the 286 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:19,800 ability to integrate with your systems. 287 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,560 So if there is information we capture, right, be able to 288 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:24,280 integrate that back. And that's one of the things you 289 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:27,320 want to look for is how does it integrate with the system that 290 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:29,520 you're mostly in? And usually that's ACRM. 291 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:33,040 So making sure you've got the proper CRM integration, making 292 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:36,480 sure posting that proper integration into the system is a 293 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,720 critical component to make sure that you don't have to go back 294 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:41,440 and forth between systems as you're as you're moving forward 295 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:43,760 and working with your human employees. 296 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:47,360 You've mentioned the data several times and the training 297 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:51,600 of the system. Tell us a little bit more about 298 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:56,520 what kinds of data are used. Simply put, any kind of data 299 00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:59,680 that is in a written format, in a digital written format, you, 300 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,480 you can feed into the system. So again, you know, FA QS, 301 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:04,520 knowledge base articles, those types of things. 302 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,920 But the other thing is the, the notion of observability and the 303 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:11,160 ability to, you know, go in and tweak and optimize the system. 304 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:13,440 That's critical. Like to see what's happening 305 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:15,520 with these interactions, see what's happening there. 306 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:17,960 And then you can either tweak the documents accordingly. 307 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:19,920 You put some additional prompts in there for that. 308 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,200 That's something that's, you know, part of as an example of 309 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,960 what we've done is we built that into the interface. 310 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:26,720 You can just feed those documents in. 311 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:30,400 You can, you know, you can tweak those those questions if you 312 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:31,800 want to and all those kind of things. 313 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,840 That's all part of the data that goes in to make sure you can get 314 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:38,520 a quality response back out. Do you have recommendations or 315 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,880 best practices for folks that are just starting out? 316 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,440 Start with a simple practical issue you're trying to solve. 317 00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:49,120 So if you're getting the same call for the same thing over and 318 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:52,160 over and over again, that's very tangible, it's very 319 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:54,720 understandable. And you can usually put the 320 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:58,640 information you want an AI receptionist to say back to the 321 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:02,240 customer very, very quickly. So again, in the case of go to, 322 00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:05,320 we've allowed you to come simply come in there and put simple 323 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:08,320 questions, simple answers. When you hear this, you can 324 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:10,600 respond with that. And as you do that, what you'll 325 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:13,880 find is you can tune that very quickly to the other things you 326 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:15,720 want to do. You'll gain reliability, you'll 327 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:18,240 gain trust, right? You'll gain the ability to get 328 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:22,360 more confidence and then train that AI receptionist as you move 329 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:23,640 forward. But starting with something very 330 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,760 practical and something very simple is a great way to get 331 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,680 started and and and makes it very real for businesses to get 332 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,120 a handle around. Starting small enables that 333 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:37,480 trust level to grow because it is new. 334 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:39,680 I'll give you an example, Michael, of where we've seen 335 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:43,520 something really work really well is so I have a medical shop 336 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:45,680 that I work with and, and they have an after hours answering 337 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:47,400 service. And after hours answering 338 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:50,880 service is literally writing down each person that calls and 339 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:53,800 then they're faxing that information in to the office the 340 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:55,040 next day. Nothing wrong with that. 341 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:57,520 That's happening today. But the air receptionist can do 342 00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,320 the same thing. It can actually take those 343 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:01,320 calls. It can capture what they called 344 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,640 about it, capture the person's name, depending on what you want 345 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:05,920 it to do. And that's a very practical 346 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:07,960 thing you can start with. That makes it easy for you to to 347 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:11,200 work on and tune and adjust as you go forward. 348 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:15,480 Can you talk about the collaboration between the 349 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:20,040 virtual workforce and the people working at the company? 350 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:24,359 It's absolutely critical to make sure that the AI workforce can 351 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:28,000 communicate and can talk to and work with your human workforce. 352 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:32,000 So you might want to, in some cases have the AI workforce at 353 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,160 the beginning of a call. You might want to have them 354 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:36,360 towards the end of a call, for example, if you wanted to ask 355 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:38,680 for a post call survey or something of that nature. 356 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,400 But making sure that you can transfer the calm intent, right, 357 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:46,000 automate those responses that the that you want to as a 358 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,760 business and make sure that we're not replacing the human 359 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:51,320 because the human touch is still needed. 360 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:53,760 And I don't see that going away anytime soon. 361 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:56,040 But making sure you're augmenting what the human is 362 00:17:56,040 --> 00:18:00,480 doing by by taking those common repetitive tasks out of their, 363 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:03,720 out of their view so they can go do something more special. 364 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:06,520 That's the kind of interaction, the kind of speciality and 365 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:08,600 specialist week that AI can bring to the market. 366 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:13,680 You're really talking about redefining some of your 367 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:20,360 processes to accommodate this new aspect, this new virtual. 368 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:22,600 Team, yes, great way to look at it. 369 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:28,480 As you take those mundane tasks out of your workflow, what can 370 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:33,200 those employees be doing that provides better value to the 371 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,880 company, that provides, you know, higher quality 372 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:38,360 interactions with the customer? Because those things will always 373 00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:40,080 be there. People will always be needed. 374 00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:42,840 But taking some of those things that you know, in some cases can 375 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,560 be frustrating because you're answering the same question over 376 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:47,720 and over again. Automating that and then making 377 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:48,840 sure you can work with the human. 378 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:51,560 At the end of the day, those are critical aspects to making sure 379 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:55,280 that we have that human to AI interaction nailed. 380 00:18:55,520 --> 00:19:00,120 Do you have any advice on on this notion of redefining the 381 00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:04,840 roles to work successfully with digital workers? 382 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,160 What can you do to delegate administrative tasks as an 383 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,800 example or things again that you don't want to do? 384 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:15,680 So One really tangible example of this is if you take a call, 385 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,440 at the end of the call, someone needs to summarize the notes 386 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:22,680 into the CRM as an example. And what I can do for you very 387 00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:24,400 quickly is summarize those notes for you. 388 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:27,240 Now you can of course go in and edit those if you want to, but 389 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:30,600 having to be posted in for you automatically is a summary that 390 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:32,320 you can accept or you can edit later. 391 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:34,880 That is an example of an administrative task and an 392 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:37,120 overhead that you probably don't want your employees to have to 393 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:39,840 worry about. As they do that, then they can 394 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,440 actually start to put their time and attention towards other 395 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:44,200 things. So I think it's critical to look 396 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:46,560 at those, at those parts of it and then figure out what the 397 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:49,280 opportunities are that maybe you haven't been able to look at 398 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:52,720 before with your employees that that they can now lean into. 399 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:57,360 So again, you're really starting with simple labor saving use 400 00:19:57,360 --> 00:19:58,840 cases. Correct. 401 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,760 Exactly. What about privacy and security 402 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:03,400 concerns? First of all, make sure that 403 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,400 you're using cloud systems and AI systems that have published 404 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,400 security policies with, with, you know, encryption, fail 405 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:13,840 safes, things of that nature. Can't say enough about that. 406 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:15,480 And making sure that those things are happening. 407 00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:18,080 Usually that's happening with the commercial vendor, but you 408 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,560 want to absolutely double check that that's that's the case. 409 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:24,880 You also want to make sure that you tune the AI to respect your 410 00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:27,240 privacy policy. So if there's things you don't 411 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,320 want the AI to ask, if for example, if your medical, you 412 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:33,200 probably don't want to ask for certain patient information, you 413 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:35,160 don't want to ask for things like Social Security number. 414 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:39,480 So tuning your security policies with the AI to make sure that it 415 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,760 doesn't ask for things that you don't want to get access to. 416 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:46,760 Make sure that not only is the technology safe for you to use, 417 00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:49,000 but you're keeping your customers and your business safe 418 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,680 from anything else that might come in and be captured 419 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:53,800 accidentally as part of the system. 420 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,720 So you protect the company and then also the users because 421 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:03,760 there is a, there's a natural curiosity about how AI will 422 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:07,600 handle our data and our privacy. And so you can secure that by 423 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:09,440 making sure that your customers understand it and you're 424 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,080 transparent with them about what you're capturing and what you're 425 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:14,880 not through your AI systems, which is a critical component of 426 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,040 success. Damon, where is all this headed? 427 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:21,760 We will see a much, much better personalization and the ability 428 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:26,200 to interact with people as if they were talking to a person. 429 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,360 So imagine as an example, if you called and do like, let's say an 430 00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:33,560 automotive dealer as an example. I know you own a, you know, 2024 431 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:35,920 Toyota 4 runner, right? I can actually bring that 432 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:39,280 information in and, and ask and say, are you calling about that 433 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:41,920 particular vehicle, right? Or I can call, I can ask about 434 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:44,560 something that's very, very personal towards you. 435 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,720 And so I think that's one thing you're going to see the latency 436 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:49,720 will improve. So the ability for you and I to 437 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:53,320 talk and an AI to talk exactly like we are at the exact same 438 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:55,360 pace will be very, very critical. 439 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:57,840 And then I think the other thing you're going to see is we talked 440 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,280 a little bit about agentic AI and the ability to take actions 441 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,440 on your behalf. And so as tools emerge, become 442 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,840 more integrated with your different systems, being able to 443 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:10,400 take more actions on your behalf and make that more seamless. 444 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:14,440 And that's really where you'll see a force multiplication for 445 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,680 businesses where we can take it can take common actions, not 446 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:21,000 just answer common questions, but take common actions that 447 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,040 might span different systems in your environment. 448 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:24,720 Those are things that are happening. 449 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,520 Many of those are there today. It's only going to get better as 450 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:29,440 we move forward. Exciting times ahead. 451 00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:32,480 Absolutely. Making it practical for all 452 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:35,480 customers to be able to adopt is what our missions all about. 453 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:39,320 Damon Covey from Go to Thanks for taking time to chat with us 454 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:40,520 today. Thank you, Michael. 455 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:41,120 Great to be here.