From beginning a career as an engineer to transitioning into the world of IT-based marketing to achieving $70 million for an online medical services company to leading a conversational AI product-based company, Brian Podolak (CEO & Co-Founder, Vocodia) has carved out a niche for himself in the tech industry. Brian is now considered as one of the top Conversational AI Expert worldwide.
“My first goal is always to create and deliver an outstanding product, and a close second is taking care of the people around me,” shares Brian. Troubleshooting issues is also his forte. At Vocodia, you will often find Brian at the center, offering solutions to issues raised by employees or customers. Likewise, team Vocodia means the world to him, so he goes above and beyond to give them what they need, and in return, they support and drive success for the company.
Brian further explains that since Vocodia is operating in a new territory, he often connects and fosters healthy relationships with industry peers to find out how they’ve overcome hurdles, implemented new ideas, and executed their goals in their organizations. Therefore, team members, clients, and colleagues consider him a visionary, compassionate, and energetic leader.
A Journey Filled with Lessons & Learnings
Brian has a background in electronic and mechanical engineering with a sound knowledge of hardware and software. Brian was so fast at solving issues that the employer had to pay him more for extra working hours when he started working. That’s amazing, right? As the days progressed, he also observed how the pricing was dynamic regarding what the company charged and what customers paid. This fuelled his intention to start his own business and led him to the IT-based marketing space, where he operated call centers for medium and large enterprise companies with the same dynamic speed-to-market that he discovered earlier on.
Later, Brian was given the responsibility of growing a market for an online pharmacy so people could purchase their medications online and have them delivered at home. Reminiscing those days, Brian remarks, “We went from zero to 50 million in revenue in less than a year but lost the business as we were a decade ahead of everyone else, and I was unprepared for all the other areas of running a business.” Experiences such as these gave Brian life-long lessons on understanding real-life capabilities, which he continues to learn from even today.
Coming to the concept behind Vocodia’s establishment, Brian and Jimmy Sposato decided to work on their idea of creating a sales team on conversational AI, which they had been toying with for the past 5 years. Pandemic allowed them to bring it to reality. The founding duo soon started building Vocodia’s first prototypes, and to their surprise, it worked.
DISA: The Future of Sales & Customer Service
Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Vocodia is set to disrupt the contact center industry with a next-generation conversational AI. DISA, which stands for “Digital Intelligent Sales Agents,” is an AI/ ML-powered software that addresses the salient pain points of a call center manager, such as compliance, training, labor costs, customer experience, and the endless need for rapid scalability.
Furthermore, this technology has the power to take over an entire sales department of a large organization but is currently being used for routine customer service and medical intake. Brian says, “We’re helping lower costs and increase efficiency, which means increased overall ROI and getting customers used to the idea that AI/ML is a net benefit and non-threatening.”
Conversational Al Giving a Competitive Edge
What makes Vocodia unique and remarkable is its conversational AI technology. Sharing a funny anecdote about AI/ML-powered voice bot, Brian reveals, “When we first tell people what we do, they’ll usually say, “Oh yeah, I get these calls all the time.” Our answer to that is, “No, you don’t.” When people experience our conversational AI and then realize they’ve been talking to a bot, it blows their minds every time.”
This is not all. Vocodia’s digital intelligent sales agents can be programmed and deployed within a few days. The solution is fully scalable and equivalent to one sales or service agent costing less than eight dollars per hour. It is just like hiring sales and customer service people at rock-bottom minimum wages but getting the expert skills of seasoned professionals instead.
Current Work & Future Plans in Progress
In today’s tech-driven world, many companies are transitioning their business models away from selling technology as an asset and toward technology as a service. In a similar vein, Brian is figuring out the best possible transition for Vocodia. Team Vocodia is currently working on newer projects for their clients, bringing sales and onboarding, and developing unique applications for their technology.
“In the coming years, our goal is to become the conversational authority across the board, leveraged by the efficiency of AI. If the job function relies on conversation, Vocodia wants to be first in line to fulfill the need. Down the road, when consumers have AI to conduct their routine affairs, we want Vocodia to be the technology that smoothes out and automates human needs fulfillment across the board,” explains Brian.
A Typical Day at Work
Brian is someone who thrives under pressure and stress. He is focused, full of energy, and determined to make things work irrespective of adversities on any given day at work. Prioritizing tasks and sticking to schedules also keep him one step ahead.
“Creating and stabilizing software that’s never existed, working with clients and understanding their needs—lawyers, leaders, industry experts, planning, financing, building teams, and candidates’ acquisition—it all keeps me jam-packed,” says Brian. He further credits his partner, Jimmy, and the team with whom he openly discusses and deliberates on Vocodia’s future goals.
Perseverance is the Key to Success
Vocodia has exceeded Brian’s expectations at all levels in terms of revenue and growth. “Jimmy and team Vocodia have moved mountains to build our software, and that’s why we got it functional before anyone else. None of this would have been possible if we had not had a clear goal: build software that can sell like a real person,” he further explains.
Taking a cue from his personal experience, Brian recommends aspiring leaders looking forward to venturing into the AI-ML industry to clarify their goals and pursue them with laser-sharp focus, just like him. Moreover, he feels that a steely determination to achieve goals and objectives is also vital.
For More info: https://vocodia.com/