Why Agentic AI Will Change Enterprise Operations | Ali Merchant

Host 00:00:00.56 Okay, hi and welcome everyone. Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Ali Merchant, who brings in 18 years of experience building and running a 2,000 person contact center operation that has now evolved into Orvera. For those of you listening who don't know who Ali is or Orvera is, could you briefly give your background and then also what is Orvera?

Ali Merchant 00:00:33.30 Sure. Thank you for having me, first of all. So, yeah, as you said, my name is Ali Merchant. 18 years back I founded this company which is like 2000 people 2000 plus people right now where we help enterprises set up scale transform their contact centers and operations a lot of it is on the healthcare side and obviously when the ChatGPT moment happened we you know sat down as discussed that if we don't innovate, you know, our services will no longer be relevant in a few years. And that's why we set up a team to come up with multiple, you know, we were doing our research and development on a few platforms actually in the domain where we hold expertise. So, but the two main ones were agentic conversational AI platform for customer experience. And the second one was, you know, medical records review, summarization, sorting.

Ali Merchant 00:01:46.82 So the latter one, we first actually, we got to a point where it was like 86% accuracy and other companies had raised 10, 15, 20, 25 million dollars with like 80% accuracy. But, you know, we never launched that product because as a team, we believe that, you know, with 86% accuracy, you cannot use that platform for medical records related work, right? The accuracy is of the essence there. So it has to be at a human level or it's just not of any use. Meaning that tells the philosophy that we have that, you know, only launch products and services that are actually really good and solves a problem for someone and or for companies and leaders and, you know, has real impact.

Ali Merchant 00:02:39.88 But the second platform was our agentic AI conversational AI platform. And this is what we saw. Like we were also benchmarking other similar platforms for our services side of the business. And we realized surprisingly that, you know, our platform had 30, 40% more resolutions. At the beginning, because we were benchmarking, you know, platforms from multi-billion dollar companies. skeptical we did like third party audits but eventually we understood that one good thing one you know principally good thing that we did when we set up this R&D team was instead of having just tech people we also had people from operations background contact center background our best leaders from our contact center business we brought them as well on the team as well as the tech people were also from our contact center uh company which is our services business and these were the best out of the both domains and I think those small small nuances that

Ali Merchant 00:03:42.68 these contact center leaders bought the realities the you know smallest of the detail right is what led to that high resolution and when I say resolution meaning you know completing a conversation any sort of interaction basically voice non-voice right without any human support at all and I think that is our only north star it's not you know anything else but that and obviously customer satisfaction so then we knew we had a great product so we deployed it for our services side of the business and then we saw that stress tested it with our you know partners we built it actually with them you know and we knew that okay we have a great product now and that's when we went as to the market on a you know larger scale and obviously today you know it's been some time that The adoption is very high. The company is growing, you know, tremendously quickly. And here we are. So that got converted into Orvera.

Host 00:04:44.16 So if I'm to put it in my words, it's that you are uniquely combining the actual hands-on operational experience that many AI startup founders, they come in, they want to do voice, but they don't really know the nitty-gritty details. and that's what really has made you successful because you can build a product that like you don't need to interview like a bunch of people you have everyone that you need in-house um but one thing before we move on and like maybe dive deeper into some of these like things that you've done and the success just for the audience to make it super super clear here if you're to break down like what is how does a like customer journey look like let's say touching upon all the elements not just like yes I call someone but but like on the back end like what are the different features you have aside from having you know an AI voice like could you give that as like a very dumbed down way

Ali Merchant 00:05:51.56 yeah of course and I think it's a good question because see we you know originally started as a voice AI company because as contact centers that is the largest part of the work that we managed which were you know voice relate voice channel calls right and then you know we deployed it and then our customers who are using our voice AI said that this is phenomenal meaning you know we are getting resolution rates in voice so at a very early stage in complex use cases we were doing 80 90 percent of resolution and that too with very high CSATs right customer satisfaction so they said that you know if you can do that with voice I we can only imagine what you can do with non-voice so that's when we got you know emails and texts and social media and all those aspects and then once we were doing that and they saw the result oh this is amazing you know they said that you know what we but we there are absolutely a good 10 20 percent of interactions that have to

Ali Merchant 00:06:56.94 be done by humans and then we know all know that in contact centers you know churn and you know people new people coming in and the thing is that it most domains the amount of information that an agent human agent has to learn is just you know not visible so they have to put their customers on hold and so on and so forth so many challenges so they said can you create something that will empower our agents so we came up with agent assist right when that was great we ourselves thought that you know what costs you know contact centers have always been treated as cost centers the only way to make them command centers and give them the the contact center leaders the deserved respect get them that respect is when they have a proactive impact on the on the business right so we said that okay with AI 100% quality is very very cost effective and very very easy as well earlier anyone from contact centers would know that you would do like

Ali Merchant 00:08:09.34 on these interactions that happened so 100% quality was possible right now you know every AI agent call and human agent call in and out what went wrong it was much easier many processes you have to have have to follow uh SOP compliance has to be followed so all that also can be you know covered

Host 00:08:31.09 oh so you mean just before you move on here so before AI you would have a sample like maybe one out of four calls you will have a manager who listens in and be like oh you follow the SOP or you do not follow and you're now saying that you can cover 100 and you can check against SOP is that is that right

Ali Merchant 00:08:50.29 yep absolutely so that's what we did but you know so these are the three different modules right you know AI agents you have agent assist you have the quality module but the most that I am always excited about as a senior leader within the organization is you know our voice of customer so early now you know that these 100% of the conversation the quality is done right the audit is done you and every word has been actually you know evaluated right now the fourth module we came up with was voice of customer which basically tells you at a granular level what

Ali Merchant 00:09:32.30 For example, you are an e-commerce platform. Or, you know, you are... So, let's say, yeah, e-commerce platform, right? You know, this is, I think, the best example I saw, actually. So, you have all these, you know, charts and graphs and analysis of what's happening across different queues. But the best part about AI is that now you don't have to sit and, you know, analyze all of that. You just ask the system that, hey, in my last one month, last 30 days, which place in the entire US I had maximum returns? So the AI agent will tell you that, okay, you had maximum returns in New York in this zip code, this area, locality.

Ali Merchant 00:10:23.74 And within that, you had like four logistics partner.

Ali Merchant 00:10:28.82 abc who is you know messing it up for you so then you can just you know kind of send an email to your teams that you know what in this zip code this logistic partner we need to you know kind of have a talk with them or we need to you know change them or whatever your process is so I think you know that is a superpower now it has become a command center across your business you know exactly what your customer feels and what challenges are there

Host 00:10:56.38 wow so you're saying if I have like if I'm a direct to consumer brand and I have a lot of fulfillment partners and one of them or like let's say in in new york we suddenly get a lot of calls and then we we we have now a way to partially cross-reference our own database and we're like oh these are the names of the customer and we know that this subcontractor is responsible for that. So it's fast. So you can very quickly escalate. And so how long would that take before, like in a traditional way, like how much, what is the sort of improvement you would say?

Ali Merchant 00:11:36.44 That's a brilliant question. Because it takes the amount of time it takes you to type and then 10 seconds later, the answer pops up. So maybe a minute, two, three, I think how fast can you type? But you know, the important part is with AI that you should know what question to ask. But it does proactively give you a few things like obviously we all see with you know, ChatGPT or Claude, right? You know, you ask it one thing, but it will tell you two more things actually.

Host 00:12:06.08 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But in the traditional system, like let's say you didn't like back in the days, how long, like how hard is it or would it be do you think to figure out these type of insights?

Ali Merchant 00:12:19.60 it depends from a company to company but let's say a sophisticated company would have their systems which is less I have seen even at an enterprise level in my 18 years I've seen less that you would have this chart so you would have to send an email so if as a CEO I would obviously not sit and you know go through all of that right and then I would send an email when that person is available they would you know kind of analyze those charts they would send me back an email and after that, you know, not sure if they got my question right. And if they want, again, you have to send them an email.

Ali Merchant 00:12:53.44 No, I do not want this. I want that. So it's a whole process. It could depend from team to team, company to company. But generally, fastest would be four hours and delay can be as much as you want, right?

Host 00:13:07.26 Yeah, days or weeks.

Ali Merchant 00:13:09.06 And then what? Next steps. Okay, you have to, you know, take some action with the supplier.

Host 00:13:16.42 Okay. Incredible. So at some point you did change your name, I believe. I'm just a little bit curious, what was the journey behind that? Why did you change and why Orvera specifically?

Ali Merchant 00:13:33.20 Yeah. So we set out to solve the problem of voice AI because we were, as I said, we were using these platforms for our customers, but we weren't satisfied. It was very tough to implement sometimes. And the biggest thing is the time, right? You know, 18 years, different multiple technology vendors I have worked with as a contact center leader, they take a lot of time. Uh, so, you know, there were these challenges and hence, um, we had to, you know, uh, we went, we, we set out to solve that voice AI problem.

Ali Merchant 00:14:12.24 This was like in early days when, you know, AI agents, what was not yet the terminology.

Ali Merchant 00:14:21.02 So that's where, and then we were only doing voice. So we said CallBotics, right? But then, you know, the platform evolved into agent assist, QA and, you know, voice of customer. And then, you know, bot was also like an old way of undermining the technology that we had built. So then we decided that since we had grown from voice to this, you know, end to end stack of agentic AI customer experience, you know, tools, and hence we decided to change the name to reflect the breadth of the solution that we're offering.

Host 00:14:57.92 Right. Yeah. And I mean, I think Orvera does have a more modern flow to it for sure. and especially because you have this omni-channel capability like the text and the voice that that makes sense that you take a more ambitious name so to speak if you put it that way

Ali Merchant 00:15:20.84 the name was very appropriate so or means you know golden and vera means truth so I think it was the best name for a conversational or a customer experience platform right the golden truth

Host 00:15:33.08 Ah, okay. Well, I was about to ask. So, golden truth. Interesting. Yes. Very, very good.

Host 00:15:43.50 Now, I'd like to dive a little bit deeper onto your differentiation, or perhaps, let's say, if I can test you a bit on your actual product quality measures. and this might be hard for you to say but you mentioned this fulfillment or success right and you have a very high rate um what how does this compare like if I'm a vendor I'm shopping throughout options it's very hard for me to decide but you have a number here but how does that compare to your competitors do you know anything or what the industry benchmark is or um how you compare with that

Ali Merchant 00:16:25.31 yeah so see you know I we have a very big belief here at Orvera what of what Jeff Bezos says of Amazon right you know we are not very uh competitor you know obsessed we are very customer obsessed in fact that is one of our you know uh values as well at Orvera which is client obsession um that being said you know so we are we are always obviously we do benchmark our platform with others to make sure you know that's like a part of the job but our focus is more on our customers we have this and the best part about us is we have this 10-15 years long-standing relationship with large contact centers across you know industries and hence we can actually partner with them not like work as a vendor partner with them and actually build solutions that you know solve problems I am not a big marketing guy and I don't know the big you know jazz words of marketing but what I understand is first principle basis we drive are you know

Ali Merchant 00:17:28.54 companies and the idea is that if itself solves a problem in a meaningful way people will buy that's about it you just have to let people know through marketing that this is what we offer talk to our customers and you will know you know that we do create magic so with that being said know our differentiator I think is the main thing is that you know we are operators first we have built the product for ourselves our customers and then we took it to the larger market so it actually works but you know why should someone believe me I mean I could say what I want to say I myself have heard these kind of things and bought gone out and bought technology and have had really bad experiences for a lack of better way to put it right in these 18 years I mean 18 years I saw that you know multiple bots cloud you know so many things so many technological changes and revolutions I have come across and I've had my share of bad experiences before I understood

Ali Merchant 00:18:34.44 like how you should choose a company a vendor and the only way to do that is without burning your hands is to actually see if they stand behind a company stand behind their solution right and that's what we also do at Orvera so whenever I would go to a you know vendor I would say that you know what I'm not going to pay a single penny for proof of concept you have to first prove that your platform works so it's not about me saving a few thousand dollars you know it's about the time that I invest uh and my team invests and on top of that the opportunity cost that six months later you know when you fail right you know or the technology doesn't work my customers are stranded right so you know uh so only if they have if they inside know that you know they can make it work is when they will agree to something like that and that's what we offer right you know we say that we don't charge anything before the proof of concept we don't

Ali Merchant 00:19:38.24 charge a single penny for implementation you know deployments once you have achieved your desired results and I think we are the only you know significant size company that probably does this and I think then there are one or two very big companies that are like very very uh which kind maybe understand this but they are like multi-billion dollar companies right they also do it but I think very few do this so I think the there is no uh like currently everyone's platform is largely the same it's this is but the whole this is a whole new thing you know agents for CX and when you implement you have to work through the operations you have to re design workflows and you really need a partner that you know has done it in the past understands contact centers closely like not you know know because you have a lot of consultants on the board the people building it know it they have done it for multiple years so I think our differentiator

Ali Merchant 00:20:44.82 is that you know platform everyone's is same but our execution how we get you the result and you know because we stand behind that we say that we don't you know charge anything uh before you actually see the results and then we talk and then after that as well all the companies I don't know any company that doesn't but at least significant size companies like us right they hold you to like at least a one-year contract we say no if we do a great job continue to use us and that's been our model on our services side of the business we have customers who have been with us for 15 years And if they want to fire us, they just need to give us a month or two months notice.

Ali Merchant 00:21:27.56 So I think that also keeps our team and me, you know, on our toes that we have to perform every single day.

Host 00:21:35.42 Absolutely. I mean, there's a common issue with this big, large incumbents that have these multi-year contracts and these lock-in customers. And then they just, their technology sometimes is absolutely horrendous. I know of many instances, legacy tech businesses.

Ali Merchant 00:21:53.42 And on top of that, see the world, because of now the avenue of AI, the technologies are also changing very rapidly. Large companies, no, you know, I'm not saying anyone is good or bad, but the facts are the facts. What I have experienced as a contact center leader, large companies, they move very slowly. Small ones, you have to find the right balance is what I learned as a contact center leader. are very large there your business doesn't mean that much to you plus you know they move really slowly very small you cannot rely on them you have to find that right balance between a startup and you know uh almost enterprise company so you know that you know you will your business is meaningful to them plus uh you know they are quick enough

Host 00:22:40.68 yep yep got it got it well this was really so much for coming on Ali. What is the best way for people if they're interested in learning more and following you or the company how can they learn more about this?

Ali Merchant 00:22:59.90 Yeah you can just go on our website orvera.ai and I'm always there on LinkedIn I'm pretty active on LinkedIn so So that's the only platform that I actually, you know, I'm active on. So yeah, anyone wants to connect more than happy to over there.

Host 00:23:19.46 Wonderful. So that will be Ali Merchant, like the very suitable name on LinkedIn. And I think good to also add Orvera because there is another Ali Merchant who is apparently an actor.

Ali Merchant 00:23:35.04 Yeah. Famous actor.

Host 00:23:37.14 So lovely to have you, Ali. and I wish you the very, very best.

Ali Merchant 00:23:42.94 Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.