Ofer Ronen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tomato.ai, a platform that provides an AI powered voice filter to melt accents for offshore agent voices as they communicate, leading to improved CSAT and gross sales metrics.
Ofer beforehand offered three tech startups, two to Google, and one to IAC. He spent the previous 5 years at Google constructing contact heart AI options inside the Space 120 incubator. He closed over $500M in offers for these new options. He holds an MS in Laptop Engineering with a give attention to AI from the College of Michigan, and an MBA from Cornell.
What initially attracted you to machine studying and AI?
AI has had an extended historical past of begins and stops. Durations when there was lots of hope for the expertise to remodel industries, adopted by durations of disillusionment as a result of it didn’t fairly stay as much as the hype.
Once I was doing a Masters in AI a few many years in the past, on the College of Michigan, it was a interval of disillusionment, when AI was not fairly making an influence. I used to be intrigued by the concept computer systems could possibly be taught to carry out duties by examples vs the normal heuristics, which requires eager about what express directions to supply. On the time I used to be working at an AI analysis lab on digital brokers which assist lecturers discover assets on-line for his or her lessons. Again then we didn’t have the massive knowledge, the highly effective compute assets, or the superior neural networks that we have now right this moment, so the capabilities we constructed had been restricted.
From 2016 to 2019 you labored at Google’s Space 120 incubator to design extremely sturdy digital brokers for the biggest contact facilities. What was this answer exactly?
Extra not too long ago I labored at Google’s Space 120 incubator on a few of the largest voice digital brokers deployments, together with a few initiatives for Fortune 50 corporations with over 100 million help calls a 12 months.
With the intention to construct extra sturdy voice digital brokers that may deal with advanced conversations, we took thousands and thousands of historic conversations between people and used these conversations to detect the kind of follow-up questions clients have past their preliminary acknowledged subject. By mining follow-up questions and by mining other ways clients phrase every query, we had been capable of construct versatile digital brokers that may have meandering conversations. This mirrored higher the sort of conversations clients have with human brokers. The top end result was a cloth improve within the whole calls totally dealt with by the digital brokers.
In 2021 and 2022, you constructed a 2nd startup at Space 120,. might you share what this firm was and what you realized from the expertise?
My second startup inside Space 120 was once more targeted on name facilities. Our answer targeted on lowering buyer churn by proactively reaching out to clients proper after a failed help name the place the client expressed their subject however didn’t get to a decision. The outreach can be performed by digital brokers skilled to handle these open points. What I realized from that have is that churn is a troublesome metric to measure in a well timed method. It could actually take 6 months to get statistically important outcomes for modifications in churn. That makes it laborious to optimize an expertise quick sufficient and to persuade clients an answer is working.
Might you share the genesis story behind your third third contact heart AI startup Tomato.ai, and why you selected to do it your self versus working inside Google?
The concept for Tomato.ai, my third contact heart startup, got here from James Fan, my co-founder and CTO. James thought it will be more practical to promote wine utilizing a French accent, and so what if anybody could possibly be made to sound French?
This was the seed of the concept, and from there our considering advanced. As we investigated it extra we discovered a extra acute ache level felt by clients when talking with accented offshore brokers. Clients had issues with comprehension and belief. This represented a bigger market alternative. Given our backgrounds, we realized the sizable influence it will have on name facilities, serving to them enhance their gross sales and help metrics. We now consult with this sort of answer as Accent Softening.
James and I beforehand led and offered startups, together with every of us promoting a startup to Google.
We determined to go away Google to begin Tomato.ai as a result of, after a few years at Google, we had been itching to get again to beginning and main our personal firm.
Tomato.ai solves an essential ache level with name facilities, which is softening accents for brokers. Might you focus on why voice filters are a most popular answer to agent coaching?
At Tomato.ai, we perceive the significance of clear communication in name facilities, the place accents can generally create boundaries. As a substitute of relying solely on conventional agent coaching, we have developed voice filters, or what we name “accent softening.” These filters assist brokers preserve their distinctive voice, whereas lowering their accents, bettering readability for callers. By utilizing voice filters, we guarantee higher communication and construct belief between brokers and callers, making each interplay more practical and satisfying to the client. So, in comparison with intensive coaching packages, voice filters supply an easier and extra fast answer to handle accent-related challenges in name facilities.
As present brokers leverage these instruments to reinforce their efficiency, they are going to be empowered to command increased charges, reflecting their elevated worth in delivering distinctive buyer experiences. Concurrently, the democratizing impact of generative AI will deliver new entry-level brokers into the fold, increasing the expertise pool and driving down hourly charges. This dichotomy signifies a elementary transformation within the dynamics of name heart providers, the place expertise and human experience reshape the panorama of the business, paving the way in which for a extra inclusive and aggressive future.
What are a few of the totally different machine studying and AI applied sciences which might be used to allow voice filtering?
One of these real-time voice filtering answer wouldn’t have been attainable simply a few years in the past. Developments in speech analysis mixed with newer architectures just like the transformer mannequin and Deep Neural Networks, and extra highly effective AI {hardware} (like TPUs from Google, and GPUs from NVidia) make it extra attainable to construct such options right this moment. It’s nonetheless a really troublesome downside that requires our crew to invent new strategies for coaching speech-to-speech fashions which might be low latency, and top quality.
What kind of suggestions has been obtained from name facilities, and the way has it impacted worker churn charges?
We have now robust demand from massive and small offshore name facilities to check out our accent softening answer. These name facilities acknowledge that Tomato.ai can assist with their prime two issues (1) offshore brokers’ efficiency metrics are lower than par vs onshore brokers (2) it’s troublesome to search out sufficient certified brokers to rent in offshore markets like India and The Philippines.
We count on within the coming weeks to have case research that spotlight the kind of influence name facilities expertise utilizing Accent Softening. We count on gross sales calls to see a direct carry in key metrics like income, shut charges, and lead qualification charges. On the identical time, we count on help calls to see shorter deal with occasions, fewer callbacks, and improved CSAT.
As talked about above churn charges take longer to validate, and so case research with these enhancements will come at a later date.
Tomato.ai not too long ago raised a $10 million funding spherical, what does this imply for the way forward for the corporate?
As Tomato.ai gears up for its inaugural product launch, the crew stays steadfast in its dedication to reshaping the panorama of world communication and the way forward for work, one dialog at a time.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to Tomato.ai.