Primarily these businesses are in the Banking, Insurance and Telecommunications industries, where significant challenges can be solved with AI and automation.

To illustrate how Hyperlab has helped its customers, Sithasanan cites a case study wherein they launched a smart customer support assistant for the first fully digital telco in Malaysia. Being 100 percent digital means that there are be no retail stores, no customer service number, and no email for customers to contact. The only channel through which customers would be able to communicate is through the smart support assistant on its app, website and Facebook.

By integrating deeply with their core telco systems, Hyberlab’s assistant was able to help solve billing, delivery and product queries. Trained on a vast knowledge-base, the bot could speak English, Bahasa Malaysia and ‘Manglish’ (mixed use of both English and Bahasa Malaysia, commonly used by Malaysians). The bot has been in operation for a year now, and it handles about 80 percent of customer service requests, while helping manage the escalation of core issues through live chat with a support agent.

Their success building effective AI Assistants for business have landed them to win numerous awards, including a Gold for Best CX Platform and Grand Prix at the Malaysian Digital Awards, a Bronze for Best CEM Technology at the CX Asia Awards, as well as a Gold for Best HR Technology at the HR Excellence Awards. Hyperlab was also voted as the Best AI and Machine Learning startup in Malaysia at the ASEAN Rice Bowl Awards and are currently battling for the title as the Best in ASEAN.

Despite proven cases, some business are still on the fence. One of their main concerns when considering Conversational AI, is that it takes humans out of the equation. “Building a digital workforce is not about replacing jobs, rather its about enabling and elevating experiences for customers and employees,” asserts Sithasanan.

Furthermore, the IDC calculates that AI associated with Customer Experience “will boost global business revenue from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2021 by $1.1 trillion.” This boost will also result in more than 2 million new jobs by 2021. So businesses who don’t start now, risk losing out on the rewards of progress.

“People are never going to stop communicating - with each other or machines. In fact, our research on human-to-machine interaction has shown that 45 percent of people would share something intimate with a bot that they wouldn’t with another person,” says Sithasanan.

This insight is what fuels Hyperlabs product development. They envision a future where people will be able to have indistinguishable, personal, natural conversations with machines that in-turn drive real value and utility for businesses.

Hyperlab was recently acquired by Asia-based global experience company Everise. Everise’s acquisition of Hyperlab follows its recent partnership in March 2018 with Microsoft, which saw the two firms develop an AI platform targeting the contact centre and BPO industry through voice, video and text interactions, which Hyperlab will continue to develop as they grow in Asia and the U.S.