Miscommunication and wrong pronunciation are a daily routine for contact agencies every day!

Because of the lack of well-trained employees - the number of agencies losing credibility is higher than ever. To avoid inadequate staff, agencies needed to look deeper into who they hire as their representative!

Akash, Sharath, and Swapnil came up with a brilliant idea to prioritize proper language assessment and delivery for every contact agency. They established an AI platform that helps agents improve their language skills - a perspective that will be only beneficial to the agency.

Observe.Ai is a Voice AI-assisted platform dealing with updated speech and natural language processing technologies. It helps agencies watch over their workers and ensure accurate delivery.

Easier said than done! The unbreakable trio moved mountains to achieve this, and they didn’t only introduce new technology to the customer service industry but also helped many workers explore their full potential. The fascinating story continues below.

Live and Learn

Swapnil Jain was born in Delhi, India, in the early 1990s. He was born to a fairly modern household, who kept up-to-date with the world’s development. Swapnil had relatives with extensive knowledge of the world’s inventions, and he adored arguments around them.

It’s safe to say that Swapnil inherited his talent for engineering and computer science from his family and their respective backgrounds in different fields. That's why, in 2008, Swapnil enrolled at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi to continue studying computer science and mathematics.

Sharath Keshava Narayana was born in the Bengaluru area of India in the late 1990s. Sharath had an impressive gift of communication and rational thinking. He was able to participate in grown discussions with his relatives, discussing serious issues. He also understood technology and was able to grasp computer operations even as a kid.

He was clearly above ordinary intelligence as he could outsmart just about everybody! Sharath was also known as a born salesman, and he could convince anyone to his wit. With this in mind, Sharath enrolled in the Visvesvaraya Technological University to pursue a career in computer sciences.

Akash Singh was born in Delhi, India, in the late 1990s. He was born to a loving and ambitious family who encouraged all his capabilities! Even as a kid, Akash was always one step ahead of his classmates - being very talented at math and IT. Once he got introduced to technology, Akash decided to steer his life-calling towards it.

Like Swapnil, Akash enrolled in the Indian Institute of Technology in 2008. He would study for a bachelor’s in computer sciences.

Intertwined Paths

In late 2012, right after he graduated from the institute, Swapnil scored his dream job at Google as a software engineer. He felt like he could finally make a difference working for the world’s largest online encyclopedia!

Swapnil loved working with technology and wanted to try his hand with AI systems. After a year of success in Google, Swapnil moved on to his biggest milestone at that time - working for an upcoming social media network! Swapnil moved oceans away to San Francisco to work for Twitter.

Sharath Keshavanarayana did not rest easy with his life either, as from 2004 to 2006 - he worked as a team leader of PreSale. His charming presence and charismatic persona drew many people to trust him with their financial decisions.

He took a few grand steps and flourished in the sales and marketing industry! Many people wanted to work with him, so he quickly scored a job in the regional sales department at Akamai Technologies. The streak of success didn’t stop there, as in 2013 - Sharath was invited to join Amazon, where he remained for a year.

Akash Singh didn’t stay very much behind compared to his future partners. Akash and Swapnil both graduated from the Institute of Technology in 2012. However, unlike Swapnil, Akash got an opportunity to work at Microsoft, after which he left and became the lead software developer at InMobi.

Promising Roads

Even though Swapnil and Akash were colleagues from the institute, they did not expect to see each other in the Philippines. Both were there on assignment and found themselves in a more than inadequate call agency. Most of the speakers who received over 100 calls per day were inefficient in doing their job. This was due to the outdated technologies and processes that go beyond hiring qualified people!

They realized that call centers don’t usually monitor the calls that come in and out of the agency. This gives the workers more freedom to abuse their benefits. There was a great chance that one of every two customers was not satisfied with their call.

This is where they got the inspiration for a call center monitoring service that will guarantee employers great quality and preciseness. With that in mind, Swapnil and Akash brought in Saharath, who was busy working in Contact Center Software in the meantime. In 2017, the trio discussed that call centers need advancements in natural speech and language processing. This would be accomplished through a monitoring service that will help workers improve their language.

Finally, in 2017, the trio went hand in hand into another business adventure, this time launching Observe.Ai. Akash, Sharath, and Swapnil chose San Francisco as Observe’s headquarters, as the city promises exposure and expansion. The co-founders also opened an office in Bangalore as an ode to their native homeland.

Upward Spiral

The team evaluated many contact centers and observed their workers. They noticed that centers usually use multiple spreadsheets to check calls that fluctuate in their agencies. This resulted in many unsatisfied customers never getting the chance to complain.

Observe.Ai had the goal to create qualified staff for both the contact centers and customers’ sake.

At first, the company was not trusted by many call centers, who stubbornly refused to part with outdated technologies of monitoring their calls. Observe.Ai helps by coaching, monitoring, and analyzing what the agents must modify. It took time for Observe to spread, but when it did - many were hooked!

In August of 2017, Observe.Ai raised $900k from Emergent Ventures. This was the founders' first milestone, which meant that call centers were willing to forget about old technologies and implement a newer perspective.

In 2018, ObserveAi raised $120K from Y Combinator. A little later that year, Observe.Ai raised another huge $8M from new investors Nexus Ventures Parent.

The two final funding rounds were in 2019 and 2020, respectively, when Observe.Ai had raised a total of an impressive $89M.

In August 2021 Observe.AI acquired ScopeAI, intending to expand into more web chats. Observe.

AI, Today

Observe.AI today has from 101 to 250 employees who work tirelessly on coaching customer-service workers to produce quality speech and assessment. The headquarters are still in San Francisco, but it also has offices in the founder homeland - India.

According to a post-money valuation, Observe.AI has a worth of $100M to $500M, making it the next best company when it comes to call centers. Over the years, Observe.AI snatched more than 150 customers and partners including Microsoft, TripAdvisor, Talkdesk, Root Insurance, and many more.

Observe.AI helped 20,000 agents get their license, which boomed during the pandemic. The company has 15 investors, including giants like Scale Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Nexus Ventures, Emergent Ventures, and many more.

If it wasn’t for Shartha, Swapnil, and Akash’s determination, there would never have been a company that aims at improving speech in contact centers. By paying attention to detail and striving for perfection - the trio got many eyes focused on Observe.AI, attracting over 1000 clients.

Thanks to Observe.AI, contact agencies won’t have to stick with mediocrity anymore but instead observe true perfectionism from their employees!