Interview with Prateek Gupta, Director of Sales
What do you see as the most exciting developments or trends in the Conversational AI space right now, and how do you think they will impact go-to-market strategies?
“Generative AI has enabled bots to accurately discuss a broader range of subjects. Streaming text-to-speech technology has also significantly reduced the delay between analysis and response by bots, making the entire experience human-like.
Although Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has room for improvement, Skit.ai is in an excellent position to cater to various use cases in many industries. The immediate impact on the marketing strategy would be an expansion of the Total Addressable Market within the same industry. Expanding to new markets is dependent on relevant regulations, which keep evolving, and our ability to understand the industry-specific nuances so that we can give proper instructions to AI. AGI is expected to overcome many of these hurdles in the future.”
Could you share some insights into how you approach identifying and prioritizing target markets for Conversational AI solutions?
“For Skit.ai, the current approach centers around finding markets with large volumes of interactions, typically between business institutions and their customers, and with a limited number of use cases. As our technology gets better and faster at fine-tuning Generative AI models to specific use cases, we will drop the requirement of focusing on limited use cases. Any industry that requires a large number of interactions is a feasible market for Skit.ai. Underserved markets are and will be prioritized.”
How do you navigate the challenges of educating potential clients about the value and capabilities of Conversational AI, especially in industries that may be less familiar with the technology?
“Educating a nascent industry is tough initially; it takes significant effort and time but presents a golden opportunity to become the go-to partner once the solutions start getting accepted. Talking to as many people as possible improves our knowledge of a new industry and gives them a chance to learn about our solution.
In a typical Skit.ai sales process, conversion ratios are small but build over time. We generally find some early adopters and work hard to help them be successful and turn them into evangelists. We focus on platforms with the right target audience, which has turned out to be an efficient way to pass on the message.
To expand our reach beyond the limitations of human interactions, educational digital marketing content is beneficial.”
How do you approach pricing and packaging strategies for Conversational AI solutions, considering factors such as market competition and perceived value?
“Delivering value to customers is the only way to achieve long-term success, and Amazon.com is a great example that comes to my mind. Different industries perceive value in different ways. For us at Skit.ai, the trick is to quantify the perceived value in dollars and charge a fraction of that value for our solution. In the current financial market, the second thing we worry about is our gross margins, so we don’t indulge in pricing wars with the competition. We would rather focus on delivering higher value and charging a small fraction of that value while keeping a healthy gross margin.”
Looking ahead, what are the biggest opportunities and challenges for Conversational AI in terms of growth and delivery, and how do you plan to capitalize on them?
“As and when the cost of Generative AI goes down, price-sensitive markets and geographies will present a tremendous growth opportunity. With these technologies being commonplace, the challenge will be to keep finding differentiation in our solutions.”
What are some of the key challenges you face when implementing Conversational AI solutions while ensuring compliance with regulations?
“Regulations keep changing and are influenced by various factors. Sometimes, you are just collateral damage. Small and medium players in a niche market generally don’t have much influence on regulations. Therefore, the biggest challenge is to keep up with changing regulations that apply to us but are not intended for us. This also derails progress.”
In your experience, what are some common misconceptions or myths surrounding compliance in Conversational AI, and how do you address them?
“The most recent myth is that ‘Robocalls are Illegal.’ While that makes for a good headline, if you read the fine print it’s clear that you can use artificial voices to make phone calls if you have prior express consent, which has been a requirement since 1991, when the TCPA was introduced. Educating our users is one way to tackle this misconception. This is where Skit.ai’s early adopters turned evangelists became more helpful than ever.”
How do you approach data privacy and security concerns in Conversational AI implementations, especially considering the sensitive nature of conversational data?
“Skit.ai follows all data privacy standards and has invested heavily in making our systems compliant with GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS certifications.”
What role does collaboration play between your team and regulatory bodies or compliance experts in ensuring that Conversational AI solutions meet the necessary standards?
“We are not directly involved with regulatory authorities, but we engage with compliance experts to ensure that our solutions comply with all aspects of the regulations governing our clients and us. Due to the evolving nature of the regulations, this is not limited to the solution’s development cycle but is an ongoing process.”
How do you anticipate future regulatory changes and adapt your go-to-market strategies and product offerings accordingly?
“At Skit.ai, we engage with compliance experts to foresee regulatory changes and incorporate them into our product. We also have product owners who double up as internal compliance experts because they are the ones who understand the product best and can ensure that it remains true to regulatory standards.”
Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges in the intersection of Conversational AI and compliance, and how do you plan to address them?
“We believe that our solution does not engage in any activity that current (or future) regulations are targeting. Our multichannel strategy and enhancement of our inbound voice solution will help us address compliance hurdles that may arise in the future.”
How does Skit.ai’s approach to conversational AI set it apart from others in the industry?
“Most other AI vendors view debt collection as just another industry in which interacting with consumers represents a significant requirement.”
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