010: Mallesh Murugesan (Co-Founder at Chirrp.ai)

Mallesh Murugesan on Innovation City

“It’s not easy to have good energy 24/7, but as long as you put good energy out there, it will come back to you.” — Mallesh Murugesan

Welcome to Innovation City, powered by Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami. Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world. Innovation City gives you an inside look at how and why business and culture are changing so rapidly, thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community.

Mallesh Murugesan is the Founder and CEO of Abeyon, and Co-Founder and CEO of Chirrp.ai. He’s an innovative leader with a passion for artificial intelligence and design. He’s currently working on several advanced technologies, including cognitive computing, business intelligence, and collaborative solutions. Find Mallesh on Twitter @malleshm.

Chirrp.ai is a multi-channel chatbot platform, powered by cognitive technology. Chirrp uses Artificial Intelligence technology to build automated chat services that respond instantly to customer questions in order to deliver next-generation customer service. Chirrp is currently working to build AI-managed automatic conversations in the healthcare, fintech and retail spaces.

They discuss:

• Texting businesses instead of calling them
• Capital One’s recent announcement of a text-based assistant
• Number of app downloads dropping dramatically
• Connecting with customers via text messaging platforms rather than apps
• Chirrp’s function: Building the base conversation and then allowing customers to talk to that base conversation on multiple platforms
• Setting up the AI; taking FAQs and adding machine learning
• Trigger points that allow the AI to learn something it doesn’t already know
• The importance of human interaction vs the advantage of AI
• Tier 1 vs Tier 2 questions
• User-Centered Design, UI, UX, Lean UX
• Making life smoother
• Catering to consumer preferences with AI in crowded markets
• The necessity of context in every AI interaction
• Staying in touch with previous employers and coworkers
• The importance of putting good energy into the world
• The importance of following your passion