It is said that sometimes we need to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves. And what better way to lose oneself than a road trip. Abhimanyu Singh spent over 13 years in multiple roles and industries. The initial five years of his career saw him in the role of an investment banker. He then spent a year on the road, riding his motorcycle and working with NGOs in some of the most remote parts of India. Back from the trip, he had a choice to make, settle down with another job or start something afresh. Abhimanyu chose to branch out and founded his first startup ‘Copper Sky Journeys’. The company dealt with the travel space which eventually fizzled out, but he got to learn a lot. Next two years saw him working at Stayzilla as VP of Product where he built out a national network of over 25,000 alternate accommodations. But his prime was yet to come.
Agara Labs
Agara Labs is Abhimanyu’s second startup and operates in the field of artificial intelligence for customer support. A relatively new field, it offered lots of exciting opportunities and challenges. Abhimanyu feels, “The technological barrier in the AI world is being pushed back every day. A lot of times, it is us doing the pushing – creating entirely new approaches and solutions which solve problems for people around the world. That’s one of the most satisfying things about this job.”
Agara Labs comprises of data scientists, engineers and designers building next-level solutions for problems that enterprise are faced with. It builds products that automate the entire customer support function in enterprises. Using cutting-edge deep learning, it builds intelligent virtual agents which can understand and resolve customer queries without any human assistance. Due to the vast amount of data and training that goes into building these products, they are able to resolve customer queries faster and more accurately than people are. These solutions have a double-fold advantage:
- For customers, that means no more holding the phone line for 20 minutes or struggling with unhelpful agents.
- For enterprises, that means providing meaningful and fast support that customers have come to expect from brands.
Artificial Intelligence – A Technology to Bank on
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming multiple industries from its very core. Chatbots and conversational UIs started this revolution by attempting to resolve low-level queries in a self-serve mode. A similar, powerful transformation is seen happening in customer support across industries. The world is now moving to the next level of automation by handling far more complex queries as well as emulating other actions of agents. Abhimanyu is hopeful when he says, “We expect the trend of increasing complexity to continue unabated. Improvements in technology and the increasing propensity of brands to spend on technology-powered experiences are going to accelerate the adoption of such solutions. We expect the AI-powered customer support industry to grow to be a $10bn+ market over the next 5 years.”
On a Journey called Life
An entrepreneur on his journey goes through several zenith and nadir. Abhimanyu’s story is similar. The key challenge, he believes, is not being overwhelmed by failures and setbacks. He feels that everyone fails at some point and whether or not you get back in the race determines your future. In such stages when things are not as expected, support from immediate family is incredibly important. He shares, “My wife has been a pillar of confidence especially when things tend to go sideways. She has ensured that in the quest for building the company, I do not ignore my health, my family and my other passions. Her steadfast beliefs are a key part of my success.”
Having set two ventures himself, he advises the budding entrepreneurs to, “Persevere. More than anything else, the one quality that defines a successful entrepreneur is a perseverance in the face of adversity.” He also feels that there’s a lot to technology than what is being harnessed currently. According to him, “While we have pushed a lot of technology, we have not given enough attention to user experience, usability and friendliness of interfaces. With the rapidly accelerating pace of technological change, it is even more important that we simplify and customize experiences to the user instead of throwing more options at them.”
Towards the Destination
The market today is highly competitive with new technologies being introduced all the time. Folks at Agara expect that trend to continue and become stronger over time. As machine learning becomes more commonplace, it also expects a wider variety of players to enter the market. It intends to continue investing heavily in R&D to ensure Agara maintains a technological edge over its competitors. Coupled with a widening roster of products, it will continuously evaluate and enter new markets as the situation demands. For Abhimanyu, this trip will see its destination when he can look back and state, “I built something that improved the lives of people around the world.”
