WEBVTT - How Conversational AI Helps Brand Messaging

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and

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<v Speaker 1>Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio Live.

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<v Speaker 2>Person. I don't know if you check out the share price, Matt,

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<v Speaker 2>it was up about twenty one percent yesterday, gay Back,

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<v Speaker 2>I think are in eleven twelve percent today's session. But

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<v Speaker 2>the company reported earnings beat expectations, gave a forecast that

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<v Speaker 2>was above analyst consensus for second quarter EBITDA. There are

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<v Speaker 2>some analysts that a little bit cautious on the growth

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<v Speaker 2>page can.

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<v Speaker 3>Just run over ibit dah and not explain it. Does

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<v Speaker 3>everybody know what ibit dies?

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<v Speaker 2>Earnings before interest, taxes, appreciation, Nubritization Live Person works with

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<v Speaker 2>the likes of NatWest, Chipotle, BT and Brewery, connecting the

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<v Speaker 2>companies digitally with our customers. So let's get into it.

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<v Speaker 2>Rob Locasio is back with us. He's the founder and

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<v Speaker 2>CEOT Live Person. He's on zoom in New York City. Rob,

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<v Speaker 2>how are you?

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<v Speaker 4>Thanks for having me back?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, good to have you tell us a little bit

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<v Speaker 2>about the quarter in the outlook. What's going on?

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so we beat the high end of our IBIDA.

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<v Speaker 4>We're at the high end the rage of of our revenues.

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<v Speaker 1>No, we basically got very focused on, like a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of companies, you know, starting to make money, and now

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<v Speaker 1>we're focused on, you know, turning up the growth engines.

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<v Speaker 4>We just launched our new generative.

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<v Speaker 1>AI products last week, so a lot of excitement at

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<v Speaker 1>the company.

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<v Speaker 2>I just want to just follow because a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>there were a few analysts that actually cut their price

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<v Speaker 2>targets on you guys today by an average of seventeen percent,

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<v Speaker 2>and the stock is down about fifty percent. There's two

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<v Speaker 2>sales tenholed. I'm just curious, what is it that you

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<v Speaker 2>think the investment community is potentially missing or what do

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<v Speaker 2>they hammer you most about.

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<v Speaker 1>We did a big restructuring last quarter, and we even

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<v Speaker 1>we took out about seventy five million in revenue that

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<v Speaker 1>was not on core and we.

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<v Speaker 4>Even sold a business.

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<v Speaker 1>So I think it's really the investors digesting taking that

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<v Speaker 1>much revenue out.

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<v Speaker 4>But then we got positive eve DA and now we're.

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<v Speaker 1>On a path for a positive cash flow as a company, So.

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<v Speaker 4>So that's I think they just got to digest it.

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<v Speaker 1>Yesterday we did what we said we were going to do.

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<v Speaker 1>This will be the four I'll call it the first

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<v Speaker 1>clean quarter and now we're kind of off to the races.

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, I think a lot of companies rob that

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<v Speaker 3>did really well during the pandemic like you did. I mean,

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<v Speaker 3>whose stock did really well during the pandemic have just

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<v Speaker 3>gotten crushed since then and brought down below twenty nineteen

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<v Speaker 3>levels because the pendulum swung too far in both directions, right,

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, you were trading for forty bucks a share

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<v Speaker 3>at the end of twenty nineteen and now it's four

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<v Speaker 3>sixty five. What do you think it's going to take

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<v Speaker 3>or how long until you can get back to those

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<v Speaker 3>pre pandemic levels.

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<v Speaker 1>Look, we have a very you know, good sound strategy,

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<v Speaker 1>which is, you know, with the leader in enterprise AI

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<v Speaker 1>and working with the biggest brands of the world and

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<v Speaker 1>now AI and everything around Jenner of AI.

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<v Speaker 4>Is about the hottest thing that you can expect.

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<v Speaker 1>So I think for us, there's win in our sales

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<v Speaker 1>to continue to actually to you, you're right, there's a

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<v Speaker 1>disconnect right now. But you know, we just got over

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<v Speaker 1>the next couple of quarters, I think two or three

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<v Speaker 1>quarters re establish our growth rates and then you know,

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<v Speaker 1>then we could get back to those you know, pre

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<v Speaker 1>pandemic rates.

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<v Speaker 4>But the pandemic. We grew like weed.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, contax centers shut down, they need to do

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<v Speaker 1>messaging in chad in AI and bots, and we were

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<v Speaker 1>at the right place at the right time, with the

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<v Speaker 1>right tech. Obviously that growth has come down, but now

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<v Speaker 1>there's generated AI and that's a whole other way of growth.

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<v Speaker 4>So that's really what we're focused on.

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<v Speaker 2>So HOLP was that like, you know, when you say

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<v Speaker 2>that you're the leader in enterprise prize AI and you

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<v Speaker 2>are working with some well known companies. When you have

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<v Speaker 2>an average deal, what kind of revenue do you book

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<v Speaker 2>on that and what kind of visibility or long term

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<v Speaker 2>visibility does it actually ultimately give you.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, So our our poofs around six hundred and seventy million,

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<v Speaker 1>six and sixty million, six and sixty thousand, but an

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<v Speaker 1>average enterprise customer paces anywhere from three to ten million

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<v Speaker 1>dollars a year. And this would be a large bank

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<v Speaker 1>and large telco insurance company. And they're really using it

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<v Speaker 1>to drive the transformation from traditional voice calls into digital.

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<v Speaker 1>And now what they're looking at is how do we

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<v Speaker 1>automate those conversations at a very high rate.

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<v Speaker 4>And we've been able to do a very good job

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<v Speaker 4>up to now.

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<v Speaker 1>But with all the generative AI stuff, we're going to

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<v Speaker 1>be able to automate conversations.

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<v Speaker 4>And we just even released a thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Called Voice AI that we can automate voice conversations. So

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<v Speaker 1>this is really, I think an interesting time for us

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<v Speaker 1>on the product side and the platform side.

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<v Speaker 3>We talked to the CEO of gup shop yesterday and

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<v Speaker 3>they do this kind of thing for Verizon and City,

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<v Speaker 3>and I have to say I fully body slammed the

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<v Speaker 3>technology because I recently had a problem with Verizon and

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<v Speaker 3>I noticed, I mean, the bot doesn't work, it's not

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<v Speaker 3>giving me anything, and I would honestly like pay money

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<v Speaker 3>to be able to skip past that part and just

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<v Speaker 3>get to the agent, the human agent that I want

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<v Speaker 3>to talk talk to. How long until rob this technology

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<v Speaker 3>works well enough that you know, somebody with specific problems,

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<v Speaker 3>not just FAQs, is going to be satisfied talking to

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<v Speaker 3>AI rather than and even maybe prefer talking to AI

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<v Speaker 3>than a human.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, I mean, look, we do a billion conversations a

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<v Speaker 1>year and where there's seventy five percent of us have

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<v Speaker 1>automations and twenty five percent automations, and so you're right,

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<v Speaker 1>bots to me is a four letter word, but the

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<v Speaker 1>way we do it with our customers because we have

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<v Speaker 1>a very rich set of tools, we also have this

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<v Speaker 1>amazing data set, we're able to do very high quality automations.

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<v Speaker 4>With our customers.

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<v Speaker 1>So the generative AII stuff, when it does, it just

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<v Speaker 1>opens up a lot more on the long tail. Like

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<v Speaker 1>we were looking at one of our airlines and we

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<v Speaker 1>have a lot of the biggies and we found people

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<v Speaker 1>ask about iguanas like I'm looking for an iguana, So

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<v Speaker 1>I'm looking to take an iguana on the flight. And

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<v Speaker 1>we would never write a bot for that. But the

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<v Speaker 1>large language models hits the data set and comes back

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<v Speaker 1>and then gives a reply like it's they have to

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<v Speaker 1>be forty five pounds or less.

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<v Speaker 4>We're going to guana on a flight. So this is

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<v Speaker 4>the stuff that's really powerful.

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<v Speaker 1>You take the data set and the models, and the

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<v Speaker 1>models are basically taking the data set and making them

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<v Speaker 1>conversational without building a bot.

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<v Speaker 4>And bots will go away. You know, they'll eventually go away.

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<v Speaker 3>That's awesome. You know, the average weight of a male

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<v Speaker 3>iguana is eight point eight pounds according to that.

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<v Speaker 4>You know, Rob, now he's going I saw it was

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<v Speaker 4>under forty five.

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<v Speaker 2>He's now gone down an iguana rabbit hole.

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<v Speaker 3>I really want to be sitting locked to somebody on

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<v Speaker 3>my next flight.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh lost him. I want to ask you something. Enterprise

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<v Speaker 2>AI roughly almost seventeen billion and twenty twenty two in

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<v Speaker 2>terms of market size. I think that's a global market size.

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<v Speaker 2>We're looking at maybe one hundred and three billion by

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<v Speaker 2>twenty thirty. Maybe it gets even more with all of

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<v Speaker 2>this excitement over generative AI. But you are dealing with

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<v Speaker 2>some big players Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, and Video Like. There's

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of people that are involved in it, not

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<v Speaker 2>all of them are enterprise AI exclusively. How do you

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<v Speaker 2>ultimately compete against some of these bigger players who again

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<v Speaker 2>going back to you know, those bigger players who are

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<v Speaker 2>doing this kind of day in and day out, are

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<v Speaker 2>maybe going to be a cheaper option and maybe a

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<v Speaker 2>better option.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Look, we're I would say there's about ten of us

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<v Speaker 1>in the race of enterprise AI.

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<v Speaker 4>You named a few of them. What makes us unique

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<v Speaker 4>is we've got a.

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<v Speaker 1>Data set that's one of the most comprehensive and detailed

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<v Speaker 1>data sets around conversational add these are chats transcripts. If

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<v Speaker 1>you want to power high quality conversations. You need that

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<v Speaker 1>data set, and we have the largest data set out there.

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<v Speaker 1>The second part is we're starting to build tools so

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<v Speaker 1>other people in the organization can get access to that

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<v Speaker 1>data set. For instance, one in marketing can say, tell

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<v Speaker 1>me today why people are not liking us or our products,

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<v Speaker 1>or tell me the top ten reasons that the website

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<v Speaker 1>is having issues, or build a marketing.

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<v Speaker 4>Campaign that I could sell.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's say, tell sell service to families in New York

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<v Speaker 1>and it would generate the ad campaign. And so you

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<v Speaker 1>have to be able to do that using the unique

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<v Speaker 1>data set. And what makes AI powerful is when you

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<v Speaker 1>have the language language model, right plus the data set,

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<v Speaker 1>and the data sets like half of the problem.

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<v Speaker 4>And we have one of the best data sets in

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<v Speaker 4>the world for business outcomes.

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<v Speaker 3>It's true. We heard that from Ed Ludlow yesterday. He

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<v Speaker 3>was at Google in Mountain View and he said, the

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<v Speaker 3>data set is key.

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<v Speaker 1>Wow, the data sets can and I think you're going

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<v Speaker 1>to see their companies just valued on the data sets.

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<v Speaker 1>Like if one day that the value of our company

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<v Speaker 1>could be what is the data set? How much is

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<v Speaker 1>that worth? It's tremendous because it delivers these business outcomes.

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<v Speaker 2>Right, which is why exactly any McAfee talking about right,

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<v Speaker 2>this stuff is only as important as the data you

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<v Speaker 2>put into it, the amount accumulation of data, and it

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<v Speaker 2>just gets smarter and smarter.

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<v Speaker 3>Got to have the IP.

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<v Speaker 2>Got to have the IP. Rob, Thank you so much.

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<v Speaker 2>Fun to check in with you again, Rob the Cossio.

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<v Speaker 2>He's a founder and CEOT live person joining us on

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<v Speaker 2>Zoom in New York City. Yeah, it's what.

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<v Speaker 4>Are you going to do?

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<v Speaker 3>We're talking about A again. We should do a whole

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<v Speaker 3>show on A. We should just do an hour, one

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<v Speaker 3>hour nightly show on artificial intelligence.

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<v Speaker 2>Isn't that isn't that coming?

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we should have an AI. I would do A

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<v Speaker 3>do the show because you.

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<v Speaker 2>Just want to get home earlier. But it's about No,

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<v Speaker 2>it's it's fascinating. I mean, like all of a sudden,

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<v Speaker 2>the conversation. I think about the last year or two,

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<v Speaker 2>like right, we were all kind of all in on

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<v Speaker 2>crypto and we're all obsessed with that, and I'm still

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<v Speaker 2>all in. I know, I know you are, and we're not.

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<v Speaker 2>We're still figuring that out. But now it's all about

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<v Speaker 2>AI generated it just moves along.

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<v Speaker 3>The two can work together, Yes, they AI can work

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<v Speaker 3>with the blockchain.

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<v Speaker 2>A I could maybe make crypto work. Maybe maybe there

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<v Speaker 2>you go.