Website Planet had the chance to sit down and chat with Jim Kaskade, CEO of
Conversica, who will introduce us to their conversational AI platform built to convert leads into sales.
Conversica has been recognized as a leader in conversational AI for business by Gartner, CB Insights, Harvard Business Review, Red Herring, Inc and countless other industry experts.
We discussed how they started, what makes their product stand out in the sea of thousands of AI tools already flooding the market, and what they see in the future of conversational AI.
Let’s introduce Conversica to our audience. What is it and how does it work?
Conversica Inc. is a pioneer in Conversation Automation solutions focused on revenue teams that has been revolutionizing the Conversational AI space with its new-generation Revenue Digital Assistants™ (RDAs). Conversica RDAs are a complete Generative AI-powered conversation automation solution that conducts two-way, human-like conversations in multiple languages across all and every channel (SMS, chat, social media, email, etc) throughout the buyer’s entire journey.
Conversica’s RDAs execute business objectives autonomously and work alongside their human counterparts increasing the capacity of Marketing, Sales and Customer Experience teams. The RDAs engage every lead, prospect, and customer in unscripted conversations like a person would while delivering stellar customer experiences and growing revenue opportunities.
How did it all start, and what are your achievements to this day?
Conversica started in 2007, founded by Ben Bigham. He created a company named AutoFerret to serve as a CRM platform focused on the auto industry.
Three years later, they started selling Automated Virtual assistants and changed its name to AVA.ai.
Finally, in 2014, the company was renamed to Conversica and also began to expand our offerings to other industries such as tech and education.
In 2017, Conversica started supporting additional languages and channels (email and SMS).
Currently, Conversica’s platform is Generative-AI powered integration of all communication channels including Conversica Chat, the first GPT-powered enterprise-ready chat solution to be launched.
How does your mission differ from the other companies in your niche?
The launch of Conversica’s new generation RDAs makes Conversica the only conversational AI company that’s truly leveraging Generative AI and GPT technologies to create life-like, two-way interactions with the parameters required for enterprise use.
Additionally, with over a decade of expertise in AI and billions of revenue-centric interactions training its RDAs in every channel, the platform has evolved and learned how to influence and persuade customers and prospects throughout their buyer lifecycle.
Conversica’s RDAs offer an average of 24x return on investment, 40-50% conversion rates, and 10x pipeline growth. They work with what the tech stack companies already have, making them cost-effective and faster to deploy. Conversica’s customers see the return on investment in around only 21 days.
What is the difference between chatbot and conversational AI?
Conversational AI is the broader concept of artificial intelligence that automates two-way communications between AI and contacts.
Chatbots are one of the products created with Conversational AI along with voice assistants, virtual call center assistants, intelligent virtual assistants, etc. Conversational AI and Conversation Automation are incredibly valuable to consumers and businesses because these technologies automate business-critical communications. This can be as simple as automating answers to frequently asked questions in a chatbot or as sophisticated as motivating contacts through the customer journey. It all depends on each organization’s needs.
Who are your typical clients and what problems do they have when they come to you?
Our typical clients are companies looking to increase their revenue but don’t have the human capacity to do so. They get our services to pair with their human workforce to scale and unlock untapped revenue opportunities.
Something that often happens is a company that has more leads than salespeople to follow up with. Or their teams don’t have as many hours to do a persistent follow-up that will end up in closing sales. Our RDAs help take care of the time-consuming but essential tasks while humans can focus on strategic activities such as building relationships, negotiating and closing deals.
And what makes them eventually choose you over your competitors?
With over a decade of expertise in AI and billions of revenue-centric interactions training its RDAs in every channel, the platform has evolved and learned how to influence and persuade customers and prospects throughout their buyer lifecycle.
Conversica outperforms other Conversation Automation solutions also by offering global support with multilingual and omnichannel and outcome-driven conversations enriched by unlimited data integrations.
Can you share one success story from your customers? What was their pain point, and what results did they get thanks to Conversica?
Like many companies, Conversica customer
Hexagon faced the challenge of the pandemic shutdowns.
Previously, much of their lead generation and cultivation strategy relied on in-person events and meetings, but as tradeshows and travel shut down, they needed a new solution quickly. The company made a hard pivot to virtual events and digital content distribution, which generated a large number of leads, but they quickly found a gap in their funnel…
Only 10% of the prospects they generated were passed to sales, leaving a large pool of aging leads that were not being contacted. They needed a scalable way to qualify the leads, nurture those not ready to buy, and surface the truly sales-ready prospects for the sales team.
When they came across Conversica’s RDAs, they found a solution that was scalable and would perform the time-consuming but essential task of contacting all these early-stage leads with two-way customized persistent conversations. The RDAs started reaching out to existing leads and the team was excited by the results — people started responding within the hour showing interest and becoming qualified leads.
With the help of Conversica, they were able to interact with leads that had been dormant for months, unearthing hidden revenue opportunities that would never otherwise have been found. The team quickly expanded their Conversica use case to also include connecting with brand-new leads as they engaged with content or attended webinars to cultivate their interest and surface the hot opportunities faster.
By deploying Conversica’s solution, Hexagon was able to augment its workforce as the sales team could dedicate their time to strategic activities, such as building relationships and closing deals.
Hexagon’s RDA surfaces millions in pipeline from these early stage leads, delivering a 32x ROI with ARR payback in just 11 days.
Apart from marketing, what positive and negative impact can AI have on human society?
As with any transformative technology, AI presents both opportunities and challenges. At Conversica, we recognize and address the concerns and risks associated with AI, rather than simply fearing it. Concerns that we have addressed with our Generative AI product include:
Job displacement: AI and automation can lead to job losses in some sectors, as machines replace human labor. However, AI can also create new jobs and industries, requiring a shift in workforce skills and education. At Conversica, we show how revenue teams can reach their full potential by offloading menial tasks to the AI and focus on the more high-value tasks.
Privacy and surveillance: AI-powered facial recognition and data analysis tools can be used for surveillance and privacy invasion, raising ethical and legal concerns. At Conversica we follow the basic end-user subject access rights (SARs) that govern all user and AI exchanges and associated data.
Bias and discrimination: AI systems can perpetuate or even amplify existing biases present in the data they are trained on, leading to unfair or discriminatory outcomes. Conversica’s advanced use of AI protects our clients against bias and discrimination.
Ethical concerns: AI-powered decision-making systems can raise ethical questions, such as who is responsible for an AI’s actions or how to ensure AI systems align with human values. At Conversica, our Responsible AI Governance Framework allows us to clearly hold ourselves, our ecosystem of partners, and customer stakeholders accountable.
Security risks: AI can be used for malicious purposes, such as deepfake creation, cyberattacks, or autonomous weaponry, posing potential threats to individuals and society. Conversica’s compliance investments (SOC2 Type II, ISO 27001, CCPA, EU-US Privacy Shield, GDPR, COPPA, etc.) are significant and involve protections against AI security risks.
At Conversica, we continue to develop and implement responsible AI practices to address these challenges proactively. By promoting responsible AI practices, we can harness its potential benefits while minimizing potential risks.
