Slang.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) powered phone answering product for the restaurant industry founded by two former Spotify data scientists, has closed a $20 million Series A funding round led by Hunter Walk\’s and Satya Patel\’s venture capital outfit Homebrew, with additional backing from other VCs and celebrity restaurateur Tom Colicchio of Top Chef fame.
The money will help Slang.ai realise its vision of providing generative AI voice products to the retail and restaurant industries, giving businesses in the hospitality industry an extra edge by allowing them to answer customers\’ questions and take reservations using synthetic voices that sound and act like real people.
Alex Sambvani, CEO and co-founder of Slang.ai, put it this way: \”Everyone is frustrated with the experience of calling a business.\” \”No one enjoys being sent to voicemail when phoning a restaurant for a last-minute reservation or a store to find out the status of an online purchase. This need not be the case. Slang AI is bringing AI to the phone, and it has the ability to remedy this problematic experience.
When Samvani and Slang.ai CTO Gabriel Duncan were working as data scientists at Spotify, they \”discovered how powerful and beneficial an AI-powered phone concierge could be for the restaurant/hospitality industry,\” as stated by a representative from Slang.ai.
Investors, both new and old, raise a glass
Several notable investors, including Stage 2 Capital, Wing VC, Underscore VC, Active Capital, and Collide Capital, participated in the company\’s Series A round. Behance co-founder Scott Belsky also participated in the funding.
The company\’s current investors, who include CEOs of major internet firms like Snap and Zoom, have increased their initial investment.
The corporation avoided answering questions regarding the precise artificial intelligence models or technology used to create the product. The particular specifications of our technological stack are private,\” Sambvani told VentureBeat via email. Our AI system is constructed using a number of different methods. Our unique training dataset consists of millions of real-world phone calls and supports our ensemble technique, which enables us to take use of the best features of several technologies.
Stay away from a \”robot hostage situation.\”
To avoid having consumers wait on hold, leave voicemails, or get trapped in too robotic, pre-programmed phone trees, Slang.ai claims their software is tailored to the needs of busy restaurants and retail establishments.
The firm claims on its website that calling them \”shouldn\’t feel like a robot-hostage situation,\” in which customers are put on wait and exposed to \”horrible hold music\” before they are finally able to speak with a real person. By the year 2030, we will have transformed branded voice interactions into the favoured way of communication while simultaneously saving companies and consumers a combined total of 1 billion minutes.
Slang.ai simplifies and automates routine phone exchanges and improves customer service using generative AI capabilities.
The organisation also offers analysis of how calls are arriving into companies. In order to re-engage consumers and encourage them to spend more, firms might benefit from analysing data regarding customer questions.
It seems like we\’re off to a good start
Slang.ai is popular in the food service and hospitality sectors. The business claims to have achieved 6X sales growth year over year from 2022, with more than 200 clients including popular eateries like Slutty Vegan, Palm House Hospitality Group, STUDS, PLANTA, Hammitt, and Nikki Beach Miami.
Co-founder and current chairman of Hammitt, Anthony Drockton, released a statement praising the impact Slang.ai has had on the company, saying, \”Slang.ai has been a game-changer, helping us to answer calls and serve our clients more consistently than we could with our team alone.\”
CEO of Palm House Hospitality Benson Wang agreed, adding, \”Slang.ai is now a crucial part of our operation.\” Our staff is really pleased with how it has improved our visitors\’ overall experience while also reducing the number of disruptive phone calls. We can\’t imagine a world without the deliberate use of AI.
Contributing relevant evidence
Slang.ai found that despite the prevalence of restaurant-finding applications and sites, 60% of consumers still prefer to contact restaurants directly. The startup helps companies recover income that would have been lost to voicemail by automatically answering more than half of all incoming calls.
According to a recent case study, Slang.ai effectively managed bookings and orders for a six-restaurant group while saving 648 hours of phone time.
\”The phone is a channel rich with data, but we had no way to access it before Slang.ai,\” said Paul Weinstein, senior director of restaurants at PLANTA. Now that we have a firm grasp on exactly what it is that our customers want, we can swiftly adapt the AI\’s language to meet their demands.
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