Talkdesk is a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered customer experience (CX) technology that serves enterprises of all sizes. And Talkdesk CX Cloud and Industry Experience Clouds help enterprises deliver modern customer service their way. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Talkdesk founder and CEO Tiago Pavia to learn more about the company.
Tiago Pavia’s Background
What is Tiago Pavia’s background? Pavia said:
“After earning a Master of Science in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, I founded Talkdesk in 2011. Since then, I have served as the company’s CEO.”
“In my role, I have spearheaded Talkdesk’s innovation (even helping it reach as high as #8 on the Forbes Cloud 100) and overseen our 1,500+ employees, all while never losing sight of my original mission – eliminating bad customer experience (CX).”
“Over the past 13 years, I have been recognized for my leadership journey with the company I built from the ground up. For example, in 2021, I was named one of Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. A year later, I was recognized as a Globee Gold Winner for Entrepreneur of the Year.”
“Most recently, I was named “Best Artificial Intelligence (AI) Company CEO” in the seventh annual AI Breakthrough Awards Program by AI Breakthrough. This award recognized my work keeping Talkdesk at the forefront of developing AI-driven advancements in CX, allowing our clients throughout the world to access stronger service and workforce management. It also honored my commitment to reducing the obstacles standing in the way for AI adoption within CX, and ensuring responsible AI deployment that is transparent and adaptable.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Pavia shared:
“Back in 2011, I started Talkdesk with one mission in mind: to rid the world of bad CX. Nearly everyone has had a poor experience or interaction with a call center, including myself. The industry was ready for disruption, which is where Talkdesk stepped in.”
“The goal was to fix the limitations and challenges caused by legacy, on-premises call centers. So, my solution was to ensure contact center agents knew everything about their customer, before they even said hello. I did this by developing a cloud-based software that does exactly that.”
“With Talkdesk, contact center agents can boost operational efficiencies, reduce costs and improve self-service rates – all by using our features and services to transform their CX.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Pavia explained:
“Since its founding, Talkdesk has brought forward waves of new products, features and AI innovation. With that in mind, it’s impossible to call out the best and most important. However, I am able to describe a handful of our products that have allowed Talkdesk to continue moving forward on it path of meaningful innovation in the CX space:
— Talkdesk AI Agents: Talkdesk is consistently improving its virtual agents. Most recently we launched AI Agents, powered by agentic AI that can perform even more complex tasks and make decisions without the need for human intervention. Talkdesk’s purpose-built AI Agents are able to perceive their environment and take action to achieve certain goals, within the various industries it serves, like retail and banking.
— Talkdesk Navigator: Talkdesk Navigator is customers’ first point of contact when they connect with customer support or sales, because it provides GenAI powered routing – eliminating those frustrating interactive voice response menus. Instead, Talkdesk Navigator lets customers use their voice to express their issues in a more natural way, which is crucial to delivering the best experience.
— Talkdesk Embedded: Talkdesk Embedded allows agents to increase productivity by seamlessly accessing Talkdesk applications, like call controls and live transcripts, all in one workspace. Using low-code and no-code tools, this new tool makes it easy for brands to customize integrations, leading to tailored user experiences and workflows.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Pavia concluded:
“It’s hard to pick just one milestone, but as we enter the age of AI, it only feels right to call out Talkdesk’s pioneering vision and work revolutionizing the use of AI in CX.”
“In 2017, Talkdesk was the first contact center company to officially step into AI with an inside sales tool. Just a year later (and four years before ChatGPT was even released), I introduced our company’s AI-infused CX strategy, and more importantly, our crucial stand that “AI should be everywhere.”
“As AI has entered the mainstream, I’m proud that Talkdesk has never strayed away from our commitment to AI innovation and advancement. We’ve continued to look for new opportunities to lower the barrier to AI adoption for CX.”
“For example, in 2021, we did this by announcing the Talkdesk Industry Experience Clouds, which are purpose-built with vertically trained AI models that enable efficient self-service and live service use cases for financial institutions, healthcare providers, and retailers.”
“It has been a total game-changer for both the company and our customers – and that was only the beginning for us. Last year, we incorporated generative AI throughout our platform. And this year, we announced that agentic AI is also embedded throughout our entire platform. This was a huge but worthwhile undertaking, especially as tech giants like Microsoft are only now just announcing their plans for integrating it.”
