In this podcast, Mark has an illuminating conversation with John Taylor of Action.ai, a company that offers the world's most advanced natural language technology, conceived by the best computational linguistics.
Never one to shy away from a controversial question, Mark’s opening question, “Does AI really exist?”, doesn’t disappoint.
Taking this in his stride, John says it does exist but the term is much misused. He agrees that "AI" is an extraordinarily broad term that has, unfortunately, been attached to just about everything in any context you can imagine.
However, the current buzz is justified as the sector is at an extraordinary flexion point, where computational power and algorithms can be applied to use the tech in really useful ways - in healthcare, customer service etc.
John notes that knowledge is building really rapidly - and its origins are in academia.
Early Foray into Entrepreneurship
John started his entreprenuerial career early, setting up a small software company with a friend to pay university fees.
That friend was Richard Tolcher, now Action-ai's CTO. Richard was brilliant technology-wise but also had a strong commercial awareness - an unusual combination. Their aim was to do something really pioneering - to create "Delightful Automation".
The Vision: "Delightful Automation"
John and Richard knew that the Big Tech companies - Facebook, Microsoft and Google - were going to launch automated customer communication with chatbots, and although this had potential, it wasn’t really going to work, in terms of the “Delightful Automation” John and Richard were seeking to achieve.
It was going to make an impact but it wasn’t going to change behaviours and the way people interact.
Their vision has remained constant since the early days but everything else has evolved over time and the business now looks radically different from Day 1.
Most Important Things Learned from Running a Business
John believes the most important element of the business is its people. And they need to be exceptional. Compromising on the people you hire is a poor economy. In the early days, when funds are limited, if you can find a way to hire those 4 or 5 great people, the difference to the business can be immeasurable.
His approach was to try to run a capital-efficient business, understanding that if you want large, flashy offices, you will need to raise huge amounts of venture funding. John acknowledges that it's harder to run a capital-efficient business but when funding does arrive, it’s a lot easier as you’re not sitting in offices where your overheads are huge, you haven’t made promises you can’t keep, lost track of consultants etc etc.
He notes that there is a caveat though, as you can’t be so cautious that you can’t move quickly. You need to assess how much money you need to spend to get to market quickly - but it’s also about balancing spending as little money as possible in the first couple of years.
Another critical ingredient is that you need to own your own IP and be able to prove that you do. It's simple enough to achieve but you need to be aware of the need to do this from the beginning.
Getting smart people into the business sets the culture for the business. It's important you have a culture of integrity and aim to build long-term relationships.
Thanks for your time and a fascinating conversation, John.
Links and Contact:
Email John: john@action.ai
https://action.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjamestaylor/?originalSubdomain=uk