[00:00:00] Mark: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome everybody as you are joining us, whether you are live in our very special live room or if you're watching on the replay. Thank you so much for joining us. This is a, a topic that I'm excited to dig into more and I'm very excited to showcase a company that I've known for a while now, even though the name may seem a little newer to some, it is literally just a rebrand of an old one.
[00:00:26] Mark: So I've got with me, Michael and Ryan, who are part of Conduit. Um, I'm gonna let them do the, the, the intros and all the good stuff. I've got some demos and some exciting things to show you. Uh, my name is Max Simson. I'm founder of Boost Lee, uh, started doing this 10 years ago where I give host the tools, the tactics to training and the confidence to boost their diet bookings.
[00:00:47] Mark: And when we talk about doing all of the things to increase your diet bookings, cutting down on. Over reliance on third party travel agents, then it always comes back to, but Mark, I haven't got the time. And when it comes to, I haven't got the time, this is where conduit fill that need and that gap really, really well.
[00:01:06] Mark: So, uh, without more further ado, Michael, I know you're gonna go first. Uh, I'm gonna share my, my screen here, share some slides. Can you just please just do a super quick demo, first and foremost. Who you are in the company, what you do, and then go, uh, digging into conduit, please, sir.
[00:01:22] Michael: Sure. I appreciate the intro, mark, and it's great to be here.
[00:01:25] Michael: I am one of the founding AEs of the company. As Mark mentioned, we were host AI about a month ago and we rebranded to Conduit and we're really excited to show you some of the features. Um, also have. Ryan here, uh, who's also a founding AE at the company, and he'll be going through the demo in just a couple minutes.
[00:01:48] Michael: So put simply conduit to the most performant AI on the market for guest communication. Our goal, automate the mundane, repetitive tasks that we know our AI can handle, and we escalate the most important tasks to your team.
[00:02:11] Michael: So right now we're consistently handling about 80% of all guest communication in over 20,000 listings worldwide. While using our omnichannel inbox, your team only sees what conduit cannot handle, and our AI does all of the heavy lifting in the background. Uh, as Mark said, time is essential. Onboarding for conduit takes as little as two phone calls and can be set up in just about an hour, and your AI can be up and running, answering questions after that.
[00:02:53] Michael: And as a manager, as many of you are, we wanna give you full visibility, not just into the performance of the ai, but also the trends that the AI is categorizing and picking up on. So you can address maybe common problems that you see in a listing or a group of listings. And you can also see how our AI stacks up against your top.
[00:03:18] Michael: Uh, guest support, uh, uh, members as well.
[00:03:25] Michael: And a couple really cool features that we launched with the rebrand that we'll tease today, uh, one being voice AI 24 7, voice ai to triage and handle guest complaints, anything customer service and direct bookings, um, as well as something we call workflows. Which is where this will allow you to create multi-step operations that the AI can then execute.
[00:03:56] Michael: So we're really excited to push these features out and get those live. And right now Ryan's gonna be doing a demo.
[00:04:06] Mark: Alright, thank you very much for that. And chaps, just in case anybody would like to, as we're doing this today, go and check out more. What, what is the domain, what's the URL? What's the new place you want people to go?
[00:04:16] Michael: Yeah, it's conduit app and you'll see, uh, some customer case studies that are really interesting. Um, again, we work globally. Uh, we solve a lot of different problems on the customer. Um, you know, service side, guest messaging side, so check out our website. We also work in hotels as well as long-term rentals if you guys have kind of expanded portfolios with different offerings.
[00:04:45] Mark: Nice. Well, Ryan, the, the floor is yours so you can share your screen and, and run through some cool demos for everybody.
[00:04:52] Ryen: Thank you, mark. And to the Boly team. Thanks again for having us, Michael. Uh, great overview. Thank you, mark. I think we are all set now. Yeah, I can stop sweating now. Welcome everybody. I'm Ryan at Conduit.
[00:05:06] Ryen: Uh, as Michael said another founding ae, uh, here to support. Just Tell in the world about us. Uh, there's been some great traction with the fancy facelift already mentioned to Conduit, uh, certainly expanding our market offering to, uh, beyond short-term rentals. So you will notice that we have some industry specific, uh, in the, uh, the menu items there.
[00:05:29] Ryen: But I'm gonna go ahead and jump into an instance and give you a quick walkthrough of how things look, uh, as a user of conduit. So. I'm sharing a dashboard here. Uh, we're giving users full visibility into how their team is operating, so support team, uh, as well as the automation rate that they're achieving.
[00:05:48] Ryen: With Conduit, you can see a message breakdown. We see that AI is handling well over half the responses on average. Uh, with full visibility into escalations and seeing how those escalations were handled from your support team as well. And if I do move into manager dashboard, we get this awesome view of the average response time by the AI agent averaging less than 30 seconds per response in comparison to all human VAs.
[00:06:20] Ryen: And then just over to the right, we see, uh, the AI agent handling far more messages than any human. So Kbn, Airbnb, a power user of Conduit. Proud to have them with us, but let's talk about how we get there. As Mike said, onboarding is very simple, implementation is painless. We connect directly to your PMs.
[00:06:42] Ryen: We partner with all the large PMSs, uh, host away Guesty, track Streamline, and many others, as well as a near exclusive integration directly with Airbnb. So once we connect those systems on your first call, we start to see a, a list of profiles, uh, automatically building with percentages growing on the right.
[00:07:07] Ryen: This is our AI going into the PMS and Airbnb directly to scrape knowledge of all your listings to help build out this categorize and templatize list that we've created containing all the pertinent information for your properties. So we're training the model here. To equip it to answer all basic questions and beyond information index on the right, and then you can see the sources we're pulling from.
[00:07:32] Ryen: We allow you to add files, PDFs, or CSVs where additional knowledge might live, as well as guidebook links. Very easy in this case. And it will scrape the data the same way. And then if your optimization score is low, we're gonna tell you what's missing. We're jumping into that listing profile. Scrolling down to an empty circle here in the case wifi information.
[00:07:54] Ryen: You can go ahead and fill out that network and password, add that to the knowledge block, save it, and your conduit knows it for the duration. So we try to make training your model very easy to understand, you apply our best practices, and then we get into things like style. How do we want the AI to perform for us?
[00:08:14] Ryen: We obviously wanna preserve, uh, brand reputation through tone of voice. So here's a, a robust list on how to, uh, guide the style of your ai. And then we move over to rules and policies for much more stringent guide rails for which the AI to operate from. I will jump in quickly to our omnichannel inbox workflow.
[00:08:36] Ryen: Now, many teams do decide to adopt this because, uh, we can connect all communication channels. So many teams are working out of a PMS, but if they jump into conduit and add a company, email, a phone for SMS and calls a WhatsApp business line, and even enable our customizable chat widget, we can start capturing inbound lead.
[00:08:58] Ryen: Um, intent and every chat widget button can route to a specific inbox type. So Kbn Airbnb is leveraging not only guest communication inbox one for owners, we see contractors for maintenance as well as a cleaning team. So consider this your control panel for your support team, ensuring no inbound inquiry is ever missed.
[00:09:20] Ryen: So I can jump into a message here. I'll find one where the AI is proposing a reply, and we'll touch on that in a second. Uh, quick sidebar. You have your at a glance timeline, your summary on how the guest is doing, as well as that listing, booking channel and guest contact information. There's certainly breaks to the new car as we encourage achieving automation quickly.
[00:09:45] Ryen: Uh, we can have, uh, autopilot. Initially, or we can choose to go co-pilot. We are where the AI is proposing the replies and we're holding its hand as we custom craft messages teaching the system that knowledge if it's relevant to all future guests, and then sending that through with those connected channels.
[00:10:06] Ryen: We can respond through any channel there, and then we can easily assign specific threads to anyone internally that's high level inbox workflow. Again, many teams choose to work out of this, uh, at least training the AI and fine tuning that knowledge base for, you know, the first two to three months. And at that point, once it is trusted, you can go ahead and assure that it's going to be achieving an automation rate of 60 to 70%, uh, comfortably and even higher if you higher, if you'd like.
[00:10:41] Ryen: Then you can leave the ai, uh, operating in the background and, and not really need to touch it. So we are AI first, but we do offer the omnichannel inbox for, uh, organizational purposes. If we do connect phone numbers, we're recording and transcribing every single call that comes in, as well as a lightweight CRM functionality where we can, uh, view contact information and message out there.
[00:11:06] Mark: So just super quickly on this, I just wanna, this is fascinating. So the CRM capability that you've got there and you've got the phone number, um, will the, will the AI only call to confirm and triage bookings, or has it got the ability, say, in a couple of months time to drop a call in to the client, to the guest and say, Hey, would you like to come back to us?
[00:11:26] Mark: Is that an ability to be able to do something like that?
[00:11:29] Ryen: That's a good question. So as we talk about this, this term, a GI, right? Artificial general intelligence, uh, it's, it's the race to, it's the race to good A GI, uh, we're definitely nearing that as we trial our voice, AI for a very near term rollout. Um.
[00:11:45] Ryen: We've been getting samples where it's very hard to tell. It is indeed a, an ai. Uh, but that voice is also suggesting multiple properties, uh, that are available in a given area for certain dates with all details considered. So it's a great question. Um, scheduling sort of, uh, follow up calls could certainly be in scope for that.
[00:12:07] Ryen: Mm-hmm. Um, you know, the future is, is moving, is coming fast. So, um, yeah, really,
[00:12:12] Mark: really impressive. Sorry, continue, Ryan. That was just me geeking out. Look, looking at what you, that's okay.
[00:12:16] Ryen: Yeah, nearly at the finish line here. Another more, uh, technical concept that because, uh, conduit's built entirely on anthropic and and GPT-4, uh, it's a very nimble, lightweight, customizable platform.
[00:12:30] Ryen: So in what we call workflows, we want to promote the idea that conduit isn't here to change any methodology in your business. It can also act in a react, uh, proactive manner. Sorry. And we can set up workflows that chase down inbound intent. Uh, and this is a very customizable, accessible to all users feature that, uh, our product team is happy to guide, support on and have you build out custom workflows within your instance.
[00:13:00] Ryen: As Michael mentioned, integration, very simple. We're logging into PMS. We are logging into Airbnb in the first 30 minute call, connecting our channels, and we can start to see this AI work for us within the first few days. By the first week, the team is trained up. They've taken our 40 minute course, they're feeling like near experts on this.
[00:13:24] Ryen: Platform and then by the end of two weeks we have about 95% of people sticking around 'cause they know this is gonna futureproof their business and enable that scale that they're hoping for. Also, guest support teams are just loving their, their leadership when in implementing something like this, as you can imagine.
[00:13:44] Ryen: So I'm gonna wrap up with that guys. I hope you found value in the demo. Of course. Uh, conduit app in the chat and the talk to sales button, we'll route to either Michael or myself. We're happy to make time and take a look at what your current needs are, even if it's just curiosities around ai, we can keep it casual and educational, but so that's,
[00:14:07] Mark: that's interesting.
[00:14:08] Mark: So when they hit the chat button on Conduit, they actually go to a human and not robot Ryan.
[00:14:13] Ryen: Yeah.
[00:14:14] Mark: Well, I,
[00:14:15] Ryen: that's right. I mean, we do have obviously our, uh, our, our AI support built in that might capture it initially. Um, but we can identify every type of inbound message, right? Uh, so that's escalated to the human, uh, most typically one of us to handle it right away.
[00:14:31] Mark: Yeah, I love it. I've always been impressed, ever since Cole first walked me through the product, gosh, couple of years ago now, when it was, uh, was wholesale. I've always been impressed and whenever you, I get a chance to see a new demo and just looking behind the scenes that I can instantly get my marketing and sales brain worrying with the possibilities and, uh, fascinating.
[00:14:51] Mark: So you built it on, uh, GPT for and Anthropic. What was the reasoning? By having two models there and not just sticking to the, to, to the one from OpenAI.
[00:15:00] Ryen: It's a good question, mark. I'm gonna stay in my lane on this one just as a, uh, as a rep, uh, you know, telling the world about this. Um, but we do have a strong engineering team working seven days a week, 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM I know a very sound choice went into that.
[00:15:17] Ryen: Um, and, uh, as you know, we're leaving heavy enterprise app software in the past.
[00:15:23] Mark: Yeah,
[00:15:24] Ryen: absolutely. Um,
[00:15:26] Mark: okay, so here's an actual question from Zach. Um. I ha uh, got a question. Does conduits inbox support Grasshopper phone lines and apologies, Zach, I dunno what grasshopper is. Ryan, have you ever heard of, uh, grasshopper phone lines?
[00:15:42] Mark: I, I assume the tech is built off Twilio. Um, because again, that's what most, uh, text or voices built off, but Grasshopper phone lines is that. Ever come across your
[00:15:52] Ryen: docket? So, uh, for technical questions, I do just wanna point out the docs resource here, and I'm jumping over to that to share this tab. Yeah.
[00:16:01] Ryen: Uh, we have built out an entire, uh, document resource, so if I were to click in the phone, uh, we can see those. And there it is, grasshoppers right there. Uh, last second to last on the list. No good. Um. Ass funny as a of a name. We do, we do support that. They must be, uh, they must have some wide coverage. Thank you for the question, Zach.
[00:16:22] Mark: Yeah. Fantastic. And, and again, uh, the, the beauty of all of this is if you head to the docks, uh, I'm sure that it will be all up to date and absolutely firing, which is, which is fantastic. I mean, like I say, we, we are not, it's not on the, on the horizon. It is happening now and you know, AI is not going to.
[00:16:41] Mark: Replace jobs, it is just literally gonna replace hosts that aren't using it. And uh, you've got to make sure that you are at the forefront of this and it is happening so quick and you can try and fumble your way through it. You can try and do it yourself. But when there's companies like Conduit who have literally built it, and like I say, I'm.
[00:17:02] Mark: I always impressed. Uh, it is definitely worthwhile having a chat and seeing that now they've made it so simple. 'cause I know one of the kickback on the sort of the, the bits of feedback at the very start was, oh my gosh, it takes forever to, to get going. It takes forever to plug this all in. It takes forever to get it good, but now you've absolutely just fine tune that down to a 30 minute course and a, and a couple of calls and it is and it's there.
[00:17:26] Mark: So amazing to see. Well done team, well done. Everybody there, uh, which is, which is fantastic to see.
[00:17:33] Ryen: Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. I just wanna add to that last point you made. I talk to people every day, uh Right. Uh, as a rep here. So, uh, 50 to a hundred conversations on average. And, and really there's a few categories that people live in when.
[00:17:47] Ryen: Trying to understand what AI means for this industry can be, uh, you know, quite the mental rotation. Uh, we have fear and skepticism all the way to, I'm bought in because I want to be a part of, you know, growing AI in this industry. And so wherever you fall, uh, I think just the knowledge and education of of.
[00:18:06] Ryen: Uh, what's out there right now, staying abreast of it, uh, to, like I said, future proof your business and maximize, um, the effectiveness of your teams. Uh, always, always good to just know of it. So, um, no hard sell on our part. We are just here to educate and guide through, um, but a top tier product naturally sells itself.
[00:18:27] Mark: Yeah, I know a hundred percent. And that's the one thing I've always associated with, with you guys from getting to know Cole, obviously a bit more, one of the co-founders and, and the team is that there is no hard sell. So laid back, it's like, so laid back is like horizontal. I I say you just let the product do the talking, uh, and uh, and, and the talking, it is doing so phenomenal to.
[00:18:46] Mark: Thank you everybody for, for, for tuning in here. This is obviously not the last you're gonna hear of Conduit and obviously we're, we're gonna be doing more podcasts and things down the line and, uh, it is always a pleasure to, to showcase 'em to, uh, to the community. Uh. If you wanna find out more, you know, the domain to go to Conduit, which is C-O-N-D-U-I-T app.
[00:19:09] Mark: Cool little domain there. Go ahead and check it out. Uh, again, if you've got questions, hit the button. You'll go through to to to Michael. I was on earlier and Ryan and uh, and, and, yeah. Fantastic. Ryan, before we, before we leave, anything that you would like to leave, any takeaways that you would like to leave with our, our crew today?
[00:19:27] Mark: With the people that have tuned in.
[00:19:30] Ryen: No, I mean, I could shed a little light on, on what we're seeing as we, as we onboard customers, which is, you know, a very varying level of agency. Um, there is a way to go about this, uh, as people experiment with their own chat GPT instance and gain confidence there. Um, training and knowledge base for your business can be, can be terrifying.
[00:19:51] Ryen: But we do have best practices in place. We do handhold through this process and, uh, you know, we, we really. Wish for every customer to escalate any doubt. There really is no dumb question when it comes to this stuff. But, um, we have, we have people achieving upwards of 80% automation within their first two week trial before they even paid for us.
[00:20:16] Ryen: Uh, they're, they're seeing 80% of those messages being handled. Um. So, so it's, it's really incredible. I am, I believe more and more in this product every day. Uh, and I, I will leave it like with that. I, I, I don't want to just keep selling into this, uh, into this crowd, but,
[00:20:33] Mark: um, no, that's good. Would love to meet all of you.
[00:20:36] Mark: I'll be watching, uh, I've been watching this and I, I'll be thinking, I use teamwork for our ly, so for our ly sort of behind the scenes sort of task management answering to customers and whatnot. And I, and I'm thinking, gosh, I just wish Conduit would just build one for, for, for Brucely. So it would just make life a whole lot easier having to deal with support tickets all the time.
[00:20:55] Mark: But with that being said, Ryan, really appreciate it. Uh, thank you for tuning in from, from Sunny California, Michael, wherever you may be. Uh, thank you for tuning in and for everybody else, we've had a. A worldwide audience. I recognize names here from all over. I even see somebody tuning in from New Zealand, which is, which is lovely.
[00:21:12] Mark: So, uh, we're gonna leave it there. If you've missed this and you wanna watch the replay, we are gonna be clipping this and putting this all over the social medias. Go check out Brucely on your social media of choice. With that being said, everybody, have a great day. Have a great morning, afternoon, good evening, and thank you very much.
[00:21:29] Mark: We will see you all very, very soon.
