As Chief Product Officer of AI customer support startup Talkdesk, Chareyna “CK” Kannan says that firms typically need to automate totally different workflows, however that implementing AI is absolutely troublesome. Firms typically haven’t got APIs and take care of clunky, legacy software program that creates troublesome duties that IT departments do not prioritize.
“Each firm we spoke to had 50-1,000 automation requests from numerous groups within the backlog) advised TechCrunch. “This implies nothing. No. You shouldn’t have a backlog of 1,000 merchandise automation on this point in time. You need to have the ability to do it actually quick.”
This realization has grow to be the driving power behind Kannan’s new startups Pink fishwhich helps enterprise prospects construct AI brokers and different AI-driven workflows by means of pure language prompts. The software program has over 200 integrations, together with Salesforce and Zendesk, and focuses on deterministic execution. Which means the identical consumer immediate produces the identical outcomes each time.
Kannan stated Pinkfish tried a unique strategy to promoting to companies than its opponents. As a substitute of pitching the platform as a golden ticket to automate all workflows, Pinkfish instructs companies to check out the software program simply to automate one or two totally different workflows first. “That is the place they begin, then they’re 2 to 4, 4 to 10, 10 to twenty, and hopefully 1,000. [automations through Pinkfish]She stated.
Thus far, the technique has paid off. Pinkfish launched CEO and co-founder Ben Rigby at Stealth in January 2024 as Chief Product and Expertise Head (CPTO). The corporate focuses on a number of areas, together with retail and companies, attracting tons of of customers and company prospects, together with IPSY, Elevate and Talkdesk.
Kannan stated many workflow automation startups try to assist firms minimize out a number of the extra “further” points of their work, resembling automating market analysis and eliciting potential gross sales leads. Pinkfish stated it focuses on mission-critical workflows.
She gave an instance of IPSY, a make-up subscription service. One of many first workflows was one of many first workflows used to automate pink fish. The value request function was beforehand taken care of by a workforce of three. This workforce might want to manually reply to every request, whether or not they come in a single day or on the weekend. Kannan stated now that the whole course of might be carried out by means of pinkfish.
“It is crucial,” Kannan stated. “If the pinkfish is screwed someplace, guess your value is not in your web site. You will depart cash on the desk.
Now, Pinkfish has emerged from Stealth in TechCrunch and has solely raised a $7.6 million seed spherical led by Norwest Enterprise Companions, with participation from Storm Ventures and Angel Buyers.
Norwest associate Scott Bichuk is planning to take a Pinkfish board sheet, and has identified Kannan since he was with Talkdesk, and faucets Kannan to advise numerous Norwest portfolio firms. He stated he stated that it could be.
Beechuk is worked up to assist the corporate as he believes that Kannan and Rigby have the proper stability between understanding the underlying know-how and distinguishing their buyer base in a crowded AI agent panorama. He stated he was there.
“They pay prospects who discover numerous essential logos and actual ROIs. You’ll be able to assist these seed stage firms and ship actual ROIs, so it might take years to assist them. There may be,” says Beechuk.
Kannan additionally believes Pinkfish stands out from its opponents. As a result of prospects can use pure language to encourage their methods and construct these AI workflows with full code within the background. She stated low code has been fashionable for years and continues to be a part of its opponents, however in as we speak’s atmosphere, she thinks it is “useless” as a result of it is too excessive.
She added that firms do not need to select from a set of pre-coded constructing blocks, however reasonably have an answer that permits entry to a full code backend, however has an easy-to-use interface. Because the AI agent market will get crowded, she hopes that the message will resonate.
“How are you going to carry particular worth to mission-critical advanced use circumstances? One platform with the proper stage of guardrail for all these connections, grounding it to brokers and determinism. By bringing within the “Kannan” stated. “I believe these are two areas that we predict otherwise.”
