Ofer Ronen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tomato.ai, a platform that gives 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 throughout the Space 120 incubator. He closed over $500M in offers for these new options. He holds an MS in Laptop Engineering with a deal with AI from the College of Michigan, and an MBA from Cornell.

What initially attracted you to machine studying and AI?

AI has had a protracted historical past of begins and stops. Intervals when there was lots of hope for the know-how to rework industries, adopted by intervals 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 affect. I used to be intrigued by the concept that computer systems might be taught to carry out duties by means of examples vs the standard heuristics, which requires serious 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’ve at this time, so the capabilities we constructed had been restricted.

From 2016 to 2019 you labored at Google’s Space 120 incubator to design extremely strong digital brokers for the biggest contact facilities. What was this answer exactly?

Extra just lately I labored at Google’s Space 120 incubator on a number of the largest voice digital brokers deployments, together with a few tasks for Fortune 50 firms with over 100 million help calls a 12 months.

To be able to construct extra strong voice digital brokers that may deal with advanced conversations, we took hundreds of thousands of historic conversations between people and used these conversations to detect the kind of follow-up questions clients have past their preliminary acknowledged difficulty. By mining follow-up questions and by mining alternative ways clients phrase every query, we had been in a position to construct versatile digital brokers that may have meandering conversations. This mirrored higher the type of conversations clients have with human brokers. The top outcome was a fabric enhance within the complete calls absolutely 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 discovered from the expertise?

My second startup inside Space 120 was once more centered on name facilities. Our answer centered on decreasing buyer churn by proactively reaching out to clients proper after a failed help name the place the shopper expressed their difficulty however didn’t get to a decision. The outreach can be executed by digital brokers educated to deal with these open points. What I discovered from that have is that churn is a troublesome metric to measure in a well timed method. It will probably take 6 months to get statistically vital outcomes for modifications in churn. That makes it onerous 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 thought for Tomato.ai, my third contact heart startup, got here from James Fan, my co-founder and CTO. James thought it might be simpler to promote wine utilizing a French accent, and so what if anybody might be made to sound French?

This was the seed of the thought, and from there our pondering developed. 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 affect it might have on name facilities, serving to them enhance their gross sales and help metrics. We now consult with one of these 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 well-liked answer to agent coaching?

At Tomato.ai, we perceive the significance of clear communication in name facilities, the place accents can generally create limitations. 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 keep their distinctive voice, whereas decreasing their accents, enhancing readability for callers. By utilizing voice filters, we guarantee higher communication and construct belief between brokers and callers, making each interplay simpler and satisfying to the shopper. So, in comparison with in depth coaching applications, voice filters provide an easier and extra rapid answer to deal with accent-related challenges in name facilities.

As current brokers leverage these instruments to boost their efficiency, they are going to be empowered to command larger charges, reflecting their elevated worth in delivering distinctive buyer experiences. Concurrently, the democratizing impact of generative AI will convey new entry-level brokers into the fold, increasing the expertise pool and driving down hourly charges. This dichotomy signifies a basic transformation within the dynamics of name heart providers, the place know-how and human experience reshape the panorama of the business, paving the best way for a extra inclusive and aggressive future.

What are a number of the completely different machine studying and AI applied sciences which are used to allow voice filtering?

This kind of real-time voice filtering answer wouldn’t have been potential 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 potential to construct such options at this time. It’s nonetheless a really troublesome drawback that requires our crew to invent new strategies for coaching speech-to-speech fashions which are low latency, and prime quality.

What sort of suggestions has been acquired from name facilities, and the way has it impacted worker churn charges?

We now have robust demand from massive and small offshore name facilities to check out our accent softening answer. These name facilities acknowledge that Tomato.ai may help 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 anticipate within the coming weeks to have case research that spotlight the kind of affect name facilities expertise utilizing Accent Softening. We anticipate gross sales calls to see a right away elevate in key metrics like income, shut charges, and lead qualification charges. On the identical time, we anticipate help calls to see shorter deal with instances, 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 just lately 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 worldwide communication and the way forward for work, one dialog at a time.

Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to Tomato.ai.