Investing in Workhack: building trust in Bots, together
The age of AI is here.
In the last few months, we have all had our interactions with AI in different ways. With more than 100Mn users in just a few months, ChatGPT has ushered in years of innovation in just weeks. Whether these are the “Co-pilot for X” kind of tools for all kinds of knowledge workers or ChatGPT-powered interfaces on top of our most-used applications, we have begun to understand and realise the potential of human-level (and even better) intelligence powered by the Foundational Models.
But the more we get mesmerized by Generative AI, and look to adopt it in our business workflows, the more we realise that beneath the euphoria, it is actually tough to deploy and control AI in a business context. While it is becoming imperative to implement GPT models to differentiate, or at least stay in the race, for most businesses, it is also absolutely crucial to ensure that the AI is used in a safe & effective manner. Because with all said and done, Generative AI is still a black box for most enterprises.
This is where Workhack comes into play. Long before the world had its ChatGPT moment, Akshat and the team had theirs, as they began early experiments with GPT-3 back in 2021. And now they have transformed into a conversational engine, helping enterprises leverage LLMs in a safe & controllable fashion. Today, we are delighted to announce our partnership with Workhack in their journey.
When we first met Workhack, they were using GPT-3 powered interfaces to help recruitment teams improve their candidate interactions. Having gained early access to GPT-3 back in 2021, Akshat had been experimenting with the technology to understand its impact on businesses. Quickly realising the much larger opportunity that lay in the end-customer-facing interactions, they changed gears to start building the conversational flows for B2C companies. With the core thesis of building superior conversations, that lead to improved outcomes, today Workhack powers the engine that drives high-impact use cases like engagement, retention and conversion for leading consumer brands.
What caught our eye in Akshat, a college dropout who had already sold a business and published a book by Penguin before he turned 21, was the insane level of customer obsession that he carried. Despite being a bootstrapped venture, they would only pitch if a customer’s desperation to use the product was more than theirs. And once they pitched, that would mean that the product’s success in the business meant more to them than even the customer itself at times.
Starting with the sales & marketing use cases, Workhack envisions being the stable AI layer that enterprises trust for solving their generative journey, bridging the gap between LLMs and the actual business context. First, it means building goal-oriented abstractions, for conversion or retention problems, where companies can build trusting relationships with users at scale and convert that influence into transactions. Second, this means building guardrails around the conversation engine to ensure that AI works in a secure and responsible fashion, without businesses having to worry about building their own models. In their journey so far, they have already processed more than 10Mn turns of conversations with 2Mn+ end users.
While the entire Generative AI landscape is evolving too rapidly, we believe that long-term value will be created by building superior user experiences. As most enterprises look to adopt LLMs, we are excited about Workhack’s role in powering the end-consumer interactions for them. If you are a B2C company keen to leverage GenAI, please do reach out to them at a@workhack.ai
Along with our good friends at Nexus Venture Partners, we have been fortunate to partner with Akshat and the rest of the team on this journey. Congratulations Workhack, In Bots We Trust! Here’s wishing them great success ahead!
- By Manav Garg & Shivam Rajvanshi
