Colossyan is the AI video platform for workplace learning. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Colossyan CEO Dominik Kovacs to learn more about the company.
Dominik Kovacs’ Background
What is Dominik Kovacs’ background? Kovacs said:
“Prior to founding Colossyan, I started a company called Defudger, which leveraged AI to detect and verify manipulated and synthetic media content. Although Defudger struggled to find product-market fit, working with AI in that capacity opened my eyes to the ways AI-powered content could positively impact education, which ultimately led me to found Colossyan in 2020.”
“Since then, my team and I have been very involved in creating a more equitable training landscape, providing solutions that boost engagement and provide better workplace learning initiatives.”
Formation Of Colossyan
How did the idea for Colossyan come together? Kovacs shared:
“In 2018, I saw one of the first deepfake videos of Barack Obama, which was the catalyst for starting Defudger. But as we built Defudger, it was clear that AI video and avatar technology could also be used for good. This rang especially true in the content creation space, particularly within learning and education.”
“With the founding of Colossyan in 2020, we pivoted from synthetic media detection to AI video generation. Disrupting the traditional video creation space. Our goal was to bring to everyday workers the power of video and AI.”
“Historically, creating videos was extremely time-consuming and expensive, so it was clear that newer technology was needed to provide real value across industries. More so, in the context of training, talent retention, skills development or professional growth in general.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory of founding/working for the company so far? Kovacs reflected:
“There have been far too many to list them all, but closing our first enterprise customer is certainly up there.”
“We signed a major professional services customer just a month after our product was publicly launched in May 2022. It was exciting to have a large organization see the value of Colossyan so quickly. The results were the best part. Working with Colossyan, the organization was able to save money and time in training video production costs – a great testament to the mission we had embarked on – democratizing knowledge by making video affordable for all.”
Core Products
What are Colossyan’s core products and features? Kovacs explained:
“Colossyan is a text-to-speech AI video platform that enables users to create professional-quality videos using AI avatars. With the ability to create high-quality videos without any cameras or equipment, Colossyan is uniquely positioned to help workplace learning teams create videos faster and more cost-effectively.”
“Our platform offers a diverse library of 150+ different AI avatars to choose from, alongside 600+ different voices available to narrate content. Additionally, users can automatically translate Colossyan videos to 70+ languages in just a few clicks.”
“Adding to our core solution, we recently launched several new features, including:
— Instant avatars: You can now create an avatar of yourself from a photo or 20-second video clip. Your instant avatar can be paired with any script and speak 30+ languages in your own voice.
— Document to video: Teams can convert their existing documents into a video draft in just 60 seconds. Video drafts come complete with AI avatars and voiceover narration.
— Branching scenarios: Branching helps make your scenario-based training more personalized by tailoring videos to the decision-making of each viewer.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Kovacs and the team faced in building the company? Kovacs acknowledged:
“The biggest challenge is the need to continuously innovate. AI is constantly evolving, so innovation becomes part of the day-to-day, if not, we would be falling behind.”
“We invest heavily into the future of our product to maintain our position as an industry leader by listening to our experts. Our teams on the frontlines of AI innovation help us understand the ways they see the industry unfolding, while our research team gets to capture new trends, both aspects ensure we’re aligned with the industry direction and the user needs.”
“Additionally, innovation for us has to have a purpose, and we take that to heart. Customer feedback and requests from prospects allows us to continuously update our solutions. Essentially, this listening exercise allows us to innovate thinking on the added value for our users, rather than implementing trending technologies simply because they are becoming mainstream.”
Evolution Of Colossyan’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Kovacs noted:
“Aside from the many new features we’ve added to Colossyan in the past few years, our avatar realism has been one of our biggest technological advancements. The quality of our avatars continues to improve, and we’re now developing avatars tailored to specific use cases, for example: scenario avatars at a construction site or an office. We are proud to continue this evolution to address multicultural needs within the learning development industry we currently focus on.”
“Additionally, our new instant avatar feature marks a huge leap in our technology, cutting down the time required to create a custom avatar from days into minutes. Now, anyone can create an avatar of themself in any setting while maintaining their body language and natural movements – which weren’t possible under the previous custom avatar creation workflow.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Kovacs cited:
“From a product perspective, the release of our automatic translation feature in 2023 was a huge milestone that solidified our foothold in the AI video market. The ability to localize content in nearly any language is a game changer for teams creating multilingual content, and it adds a tremendous amount of value to our product.”
“We mentioned our recent instant avatar release already; however, this has been a game changer. We now offer the fastest custom avatar creation process in the industry, with the least input footage requirements. By allowing anyone to be able to create a custom avatar of themselves for free, we’re making personalized AI-powered video more widely accessible.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Kovacs about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Because Colossyan shortens the video production process, many of our customers have seen a substantial reduction in the time and costs involved in creating a video.”
“For example, Sonesta International Hotels has saved 80% of their video production costs and saw 50% time savings after they began using Colossyan. Frequent changes to training materials meant the organization had to frequently reshoot their video footage – a costly and painful process for a team creating a large amount of multilingual content. Instead, with Colossyan, Sonesta can simply update their AI avatar’s script and regenerate their video without needing to refilm anything.”
“Most customers are also using Colossyan as a way to improve the engagement of their content as well. The State of New Mexico, for example, has struggled to educate its network of 300 businesses due to the limited engagement of text-heavy content. But since implementing Colossyan, New Mexico has seen learner satisfaction soar, in addition to achieving time and cost savings.”
Growth Of The Company
When asking Kovacs about the growth of the company, he revealed:
“Last year, Colossyan saw a remarkable 600% revenue growth year-over-year, demonstrating our traction within the AI video space. Thousands of businesses now use Colossyan to produce workplace training content, including industry leaders like Novartis, Vodafone, and Paramount.”
“In February 2024, we raised our $22 million Series A funding round, which has helped propel our growth and recent product developments. Colossyan has now grown to a team of 80 full-time employees with offices in New York, London, and Budapest.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kovacs affirmed:
“Our focus on the unique needs of workplace learning teams has differentiated us from other competitors in the AI video space.”
“We’ve recently invested heavily into introducing interactive features to our platform – such as multiple-choice quizzes and branching scenarios – with the goal of boosting active learning outcomes through more interactive experiences.”
“Additionally, Colossyan is the only AI video tool that offers SCORM export, which is necessary for exporting videos to a learning management system like Docebo.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the future company goals? Kovacs pointed out:
“I believe that visual information is crucial for effective content delivery. Our overall aim for the future is to continue to develop technologies that eliminate manual work, give humans extra abilities, and ultimately help the spread of information around the world.”
“In the next five years, we will offer several different products aimed at maximizing the delivery of information through learning, sales, and customer service. This includes a focus on delivering a real-time content experience for our creators as our technology continues to evolve.”
“Our main goal is to continue to expand our customer base by providing the value they are seeking, solidify our positioning as industry leaders and innovators, and eventually expand into new markets, including Asia or Latin America.”
