Sramana Mitra: The PaaS business is getting harder and harder to do because the big players are so entrenched. It’s so expensive. The stack is so expensive from an infrastructure and computing point of view. You can’t really play the PaaS game as a startup anymore. Let’s switch to what you’re seeing on the go-to-market side.

When you were doing the beginning phase of Aisera, AI was not in the mainstream. The demand in the enterprise for AI-enabled solutions was not as strong. Now, the conversation has shifted. C-levels are talking about it. This must be making life easier for you.

Muddu Sudhakar: We started in late 2017. We focused on IT helpdesk, customer service, and customer case. We are automating customer care with AI. There has been interest in the last five years. The interest has been steadily growing.

I have seen a change in the last six months. ChatGPT has made this into a mainstream conversation. The procurement is already using ChatGPT for RFPs. When iPhone came, people knew what it was. It was a worldwide story. ChatGPT made AI and automation a necessity. We don’t have to justify everything.

There are still people questioning the ROI. We actually have an ROI calculator for that. It will make the market educated to make bets. The worst thing is not to make a bet. Maybe AI won’t work for you.

Sramana Mitra: You have to acquire POCs.

Muddu Sudhakar: I call it AI assessment. Try it. The least you should do is stay back and let the market happen. That is where I see most people fall. They’re not willing to try.

Sramana Mitra: Can you quantify to what extent the sales cycle has compressed because of the advent of this conversation?

Muddu Sudhakar: What used to take six to nine months, it has shortened by at least a quarter. The cycle has reduced. You don’t have to tell people about AI. Tell them what you can do for them. What used to take five meetings, now it takes one meeting.

Sramana Mitra: You’re starting in a sales mode as opposed to a qualification mode.

Muddu Sudhakar: I don’t have to come to you to explain. All those initial questions will go away. It will take some time. The question now is differentiation. How soon can you deploy?

Sramana Mitra: Also quality of the data. Who has access to proprietary data with which to do something meaningful.

Muddu Sudhakar: That’s right. Data is the key. The best thing customers can do is keep their data.

Sramana Mitra: You may have seen the announcement about OpenAI working with Bloomberg. That’s a very interesting case study. Bloomberg has enormous amounts of proprietary data. Applying NLMs to that is a very interesting AI problem.

Muddu Sudhakar: That’s right. Bloomberg is doing it on their data and giving it to their clients. Aisera is doing exactly that. I’m coming to each client and giving them a customized solution for their business problem.

Sramana Mitra: Data is one of the key drivers. The other is workflow. You are doing the customer support workflow for your customers. It’s a combination of customer data and workflow around which you are creating solutions.

Muddu Sudhakar: In the world of AI, I can understand your request in the conversation. I need to perform an action. That could be a fulfillment of a workflow or process. That’s where generative AI can be used to generate those workflows. It can give me the base for NLMs to understand as well as to execute the workflow.

Sramana Mitra: Great! Thank you for your time.