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This AI Answers Every Restaurant Call So That You Never Lose a $10,000 Party Reservation
This AI Answers Every Restaurant Call So That You Never Lose a $10,000 Party Reservation
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- [00:01]
Dr. Tamara Nall
What if your restaurant's phone line could talk? I mean, really talk, like a human? Alex Zamvani, CEO and co founder of Slang AI built an AI that answers calls for restaurants with personality, remembers your preferences, and never keeps customers waiting. From booking reservations to handling complex requests is redefining what customer service sounds like. This is the story of how Slang AI is giving restaurants a voice and giving people back their time, never to miss a booking nor a reservation. Let's get into it.
- [00:43]
Welcome to lead with AI. I'm Dr. Tamara Nall. In each episode, we will take you behind the scenes with visionary leaders shaping the the future of AI across public and private sectors. Join us as we explore groundbreaking projects and innovations that are transforming industries and making a real impact on people's lives. Let's dive in.
- [01:14]
So, Hi, everyone, it's Dr. T, your host with lead with AI and thanks for joining us this week. We are excited to say that we are number one in Apple podcasts and the technology, and we're so excited. And it's all because of guests like my friend and colleague, Alex Zamvani. Welcome, Alex. How are you?
- [01:35]
Alex Zamvani
Hi. I'm doing great. Thanks for having me today, Dr. T. Absolutely, absolutely.
- [01:40]
Dr. Tamara Nall
And today's a special day. What's that?
- [01:42]
Alex Zamvani
Today is a special day. It is my birthday today and this is the highlight of my day. I'm so glad I get to spend some time with you today.
- [01:49]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Oh, thank you. Well, this is a gift for me, so I'm excited about it. You gonna do anything special this year?
- [01:56]
Alex Zamvani
I'm keeping it relatively low key, so having a good dinner, seeing some friends this weekend, keeping it easy.
- [02:03]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Okay, so I'm excited because we talked about Slang AI and what I was amazed at when we talked last time is that I'm probably using and taking benefit of Slang AI and not even knowing it. So I'm excited about that.
- [02:20]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, I'm excited to tell you more.
- [02:23]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Awesome. So let's start with you, Alex.
- [02:26]
Alex Zamvani
Right?
- [02:27]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Who are you at your core and how did you come about thinking about and founding Slang AI?
- [02:37]
Alex Zamvani
So this is kind of a full circle story and I'll tell you why. So first, when I was younger, I actually first got obsessed with food. I wanted to be a chef when I was younger and that came from. Yeah, which, you know, I guess when some little kids sometimes want to be like astronauts or policemen or whatever, doctors, lawyers. For me, I wanted to be a chef. And I was inspired by my grandmother, who was an absolute beast in the kitchen. Her specialty was soul food. And she even did some catering on the side. And I was always in awe of her. And she passed down some of her recipes to me, taught me a little bit, and I was really inspired by that. So for a few years, I was. I thought I was going to be a chef when I grew up, and somewhere along the way, I took a left turn and ended up studying engineering. But there's actually. There's actually some parallels between the two. I mean, both, like cooking and engineering. There's both a creative side and a scientific side. And. And I think that there's a lot of overlap. So now I'm a technologist, but the products that we build are in service of the hospitality industry. So I get to work with an industry that's near and dear to my heart every day.
- [03:53]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Awesome. Awesome. And then how did you think about restaurants? Was it, okay, the aspiration to be a chef and you love food and you love restaurants, or how did you pick that particular niche?
- [04:06]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah. So my journey is. So I did engineering and then I did the Wall street thing for a few years. And then I was really inspired to get into AI when I was in business school after I spent some time on Wall Street. There were two big megatrends. One was crypto, and the other one was AI. And crypto was very opaque to me. I still don't fully understand it, but AI just clicked for me. It made a lot of sense it to a lot of things I did in high school and college. And so I knew when I was in business school that I was going to dedicate my career to AI. And so I was very fortunate to land a job in AI working at Spotify as a data scientist. And so that's really where I got my hands dirty with AI and got to build some really, really cool stuff there. I mean, the data that we would have on music and listening history was so fascinating. And I got to work on some of the coolest stuff there. Wow. But that's really where I first learned about AI, conversational AI in practice, in production. Like, how do you actually build and deliver those products at scale? And I got inspired to start slang while working there. And the way we landed on restaurants was, you know, I'm based in New York. I go to a lot of restaurants. I eat most. Most of my meals are eating out. And I just realized that restaurants, we realized that restaurants have a huge need for AI and tools in general that can help them communicate with their guests more effectively. Most restaurants are understaffed these days, and it's getting harder and Harder to run these businesses. And as consumers, many of us have experienced this problem of when you reach out to a restaurant, a lot of times they don't answer anymore. They can be slow to respond via email. I mean, one example is I was planning a birthday party recently, and I reached out to six restaurants here in New York, and these are, like, some of the best restaurants in the country, like, very well run, you know, successful restaurants. And only two out of the six that I reached out to got back to me.
- [06:17]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Wow.
- [06:17]
Alex Zamvani
And.
- [06:19]
Dr. Tamara Nall
And you said got back to you, so that meant nobody answered.
- [06:23]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, exactly. So. Well, some of them answered, but for private dining, it's usually something that. It's like a handoff. So you call or you might reach out and they're gonna, you know, they'll have to hand you off to a private dining manager or sales manager, you know, depending whatever the title is. So some answered, some didn't. But even the ones that did answer handed me off to someone else. And then something might have gone wrong in the handoff or they took my phone number down wrong or took my email down wrong. So there's a lot of slippage in the process, which just results in a ton of missed opportunities. So, in short, we found that AI can deliver a lot of value to restaurants because every missed guest could be, you know, a $10,000 private party, you know, that you missed out on. Right. It could be McKinsey wanting to have their holiday party at your restaurant, which that's a big check. Right. So you really need to stay on top of every single guest inter interaction to make sure that you're converting as much revenue as possible. Especially in this environment where food costs are going up, wages are going up. We do see even some great restaurants that we love shut down, because then the economics are just difficult, and you really have to squeeze every single dollar out of every part of your business.
- [07:46]
Dr. Tamara Nall
No, that's amazing. You're right. And then there's all of these factors, plus the increased competition.
- [07:52]
Alex Zamvani
Right.
- [07:54]
Dr. Tamara Nall
On a block, you could have tickets, you know, so that customer service is really, really critical.
- [08:02]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah. If you don't respond to someone quickly, there's, you know, 10 other restaurants on your block that someone else can go to.
- [08:07]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Right, Exactly. Now talk to us about the holy smokes moment. A moment where you heard a story from one of your customers, someone who is using slang AI, and it just changed everything for their restaurant.
- [08:23]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah. I would say one of the first holy smokes moments for me was when we had a client that was using our product that was opening a new restaurant, and they proactively came to us and said, hey, we're planning this new restaurant. We need slang in there before it opens. And so they were so happy with the results of the product that it was just like, this is just has to be a part of every single restaurant that we have. And if we're opening a new one, of course we're going to put slang in there. So we started to see that over and over again. But the first time that it happened, I was very. I would say surprise. Not surprised, maybe surprised, but like, you know, when you're early stage building, you don't really know, you know, is the product working? Is it not? So we didn't have a lot of data yet. So when we started to see that data, people buying more from us without us even asking, that was really good proof. And. And really, it's about capturing more revenue opportunities, making sure that every guest is answered. Because, you know, think about it. You know, you're. You're about to go to a restaurant that you haven't tried before, and you want to call them to confirm your reservation or change something, and you get a busy signal or you get voicemail. That's a very bad look for your, you know, your first time reaching out to that restaurant. Right. So we make sure that that never happens.
- [09:50]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Right? No, that's great. And this restaurant, they had other locations?
- [09:55]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, I think it was like. I think it was a group that had maybe two restaurants or something like that, and they were opening up a third, and they.
- [10:03]
Dr. Tamara Nall
And they wanted slang in the first two.
- [10:06]
Alex Zamvani
So they did have slang in the first two.
- [10:08]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Got it.
- [10:08]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, they did have slang in the first two. And then they were opening up a third location, and they. And they said. They came to us and said, hey, we love slang so much that we want to make sure we get it in that third location asap before it opens.
- [10:21]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Right, right, right. Now let's talk. So that's an example of a customer that was satisfied. Talk to me about what I call real world magic, meaning who was the founder? You were developing the next iteration of slang AI, and it even wowed you where you got chills. I mean, if you did a victory dance, you can do that too, whatever it is. But take us back to that moment where. Where you were even shocked at what slang could. AI could do for your customers.
- [10:50]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, I mean, for that, I think it's really just a matter of, like, when we launched our first clients, we had no idea how it would work. You know, five years ago is when we first launched our, you know, one of our first clients. And.
- [11:08]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Congratulations.
- [11:09]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, thank you. And we just had no idea if it would work. AI was not as, you know, normalized as it is today. This is, you know, we started pre chat GPT. We were even. We were afraid to say that our product was powered by AI because we thought it would scare some people off. But yeah, I mean, when we launched our first client, we were so nervous, we didn't know if it would be a bad experience for the caller. Um, and we would literally watch and monitor every single interaction, every single call. Yeah. And when we first launched it and I was listening to these calls and reviewing all of the data, I was really. When you talk about getting chills, I got chills because it was, it actually worked. And it wasn't, it wasn't perfect, it didn't work a hundred percent of the time, but it worked enough at launch for me to be like, this is going to work. This is the future for sure. And that was very validating. For sure.
- [12:18]
Dr. Tamara Nall
That's amazing. So our listeners are very curious people. So talk to us about the brain of slang AI. If we were to lift up the hood, how is it working? How is it so precise and how can it answer all these calls 247 and get it right all the time?
- [12:40]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah. So we have, as I mentioned, we've been in business for five years and so we have a huge database of data that allows us to train our own models. So we have a database of over 20 million phone calls all focused on restaurants. And that is really powerful because we have also huge reach in different parts of the country, different demographics. We're live in 49 states and so we have lots of different types of restaurants that we work with as well as lots of different types of people that interact with our products. So all sorts of different phrasing and accents and ways people ask for things and restaurant policies where got all of this data that allows us to train our own models to have high accuracy, natural sounding speech and ultimately convert reservations and other revenue opportunities fast.
- [13:44]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Got it. And is there kind of an ideal customer for you? Is it like fine dining? Does it need to be a certain size? Uh, is there. Can like a franchise use you? Can a McDonald's use you? Can you just talk to us a little bit about your customer base? What is that?
- [14:02]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, we work with restaurants of, of many different sizes. We focus primarily on hospitality driven restaurants. The restaurants that take reservations, they do private dining.
- [14:14]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Okay.
- [14:16]
Alex Zamvani
And so think about, you know, your favorite, like Spot to grab a meal in your city or your favorite brunch spot to go out to with friends. Slight tended, they tend to be slightly higher price point but popular. So you know, most of the restaurants that are on open table or seven rooms or resi, those are the types of restaurants that we work with.
- [14:38]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Okay, all right, perfect.
- [14:40]
Alex Zamvani
And then in terms of size, all sizes, we work with independent restaurants all the way up to enterprise groups that have, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of locations.
- [14:49]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Okay, awesome. And then I mean, you talked about you have access to your data, includes over 20 million different calls lot. So talk to us about ethics. Like how do you think about ethics and that moral balance between all of this information and how slang AI delivers?
- [15:09]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, it is a super important question and we take it super seriously. Not just because we care about ethics internally, but we also care about security and privacy and all of that stuff. We basically make it super transparent in the way that we store data with our clients and we also give them full control over their data. So if they ever want to retract data, etcetera, Then they can do that. We don't really commingle any customers proprietary, like sensitive data at all. It's all very thoughtful. And we're also very careful about the vendors that we work with in our cloud infrastructure and make sure that they take security very seriously as well.
- [16:03]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Awesome. Okay, that's good. Now I like to talk about the future and I used to say, oh, five years out, 10 years out, but the future could be tomorrow.
- [16:11]
Alex Zamvani
Right?
- [16:12]
Dr. Tamara Nall
So, so my question to you, Alex, where you sit, what is the big future for slang AI? What does it look like?
- [16:22]
Alex Zamvani
So we believe that agents, AI agents are going to disrupt every industry and hospitality is no exception. This is an industry with huge reach. We all love restaurants, go to restaurants, it's not going anywhere, but it's broken in many ways. The economics are not working for a lot of restaurants. So we think agents are going to help streamline and help these businesses sustain and grow faster. What that means for us is we're really focused on how can we partner with this industry, with these hospitality businesses, and help them leverage the latest and greatest AI technology to drive more business and of course improve efficiency as well. Well, so that's things like helping them capture more reservations. Our product also does things like cross sell promotion. So if someone reaches out to one restaurant and there's no reservation available, it can book you for a sister restaurant. So going deeper into things like that, like what are all the creative things that we can do With AI to just help you drive more business, whether it's reservations or catering or private dining or ordering or um, even just like, you know, marketing re engaging you over time. I think there's a lot of stuff that AI is going to do and take over. And we are really excited to kind of be. Our vision is really to be an agent platform for the hospitality industry that has many different agents, specialized agents that can engage your guests on, you know, wherever you want them to.
- [18:05]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Right, okay, I love that. And you know, while you were talking, I was thinking, wait, five years ago, that was during COVID and restaurants were down. Like, how did that play into the growth of slang AI? Is there a strategy you employ there differently? And I think for those listeners who are entrepreneurial, there might be some learnings. Like you literally launched when the industry was taking a hit.
- [18:30]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, um, it was really, it was an interesting time. I think it was, it was very. It was challenging in many ways, but also beneficial in other ways. It was challenging in the sense that the industry got completely upended. And you know, a lot of things were difficult during that time as well, like fundraising, like VCs were like really in a tizzy. Didn't know what to do when Covid first hit. But for us it was, I think it had advantages in the sense that one, it really forced restaurants to turn to technology in that moment. I think Covid forced an interest and orientation towards technology in the industry that wasn't there as much before. And you know, unfortunately, I think a lot of the non tech savvy operators just did not survive also. And there was a lot of consolidation. So I would say now it's a relatively like tech forward industry, even though, even though it's not necessarily perceived as that. The other piece of it was, I think it was, I would say because of that, it was a time where restaurants were open to experimenting with new technology. And so we, we were the beneficiary of that for sure.
- [20:02]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Oh, that's, that's amazing. And you're right, because if fewer people can go in, if you can have playing AI to help make reservations, then. Okay, got it. Well, that's amazing. Kudos to you.
- [20:12]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah. And if you think back to those crazy times in Covid we had, you know, the COVID policies were changing like every month or every couple months. And so people would be reaching out and be like, well, do I have to bring a mask? Do I not? Are we social distancing at this restaurant? Are we not? What are the policies? You know, even within the same City, all of that. Yeah, we were doing a lot of COVID related inquiries. Yeah.
- [20:34]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Awesome. And those are quick questions anyway, so.
- [20:37]
Alex Zamvani
Right, exactly.
- [20:38]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Yeah, no, that's good, that's good. Okay, so, Alex, one of my favorite portions of the discussion is what I call from one genius to another. And that's where a previous guest has a question for you. Okay, so your question is, what is your number one AI product and why?
- [21:00]
Alex Zamvani
Oh, okay. My number one AI product today is a product. You know, my first choice would have been chatgpt, but that's going to be a throwaway. So I'm going to say this tool called N8N. Some folks might be familiar with it. It's basically an automation tool. If you've heard of Zapier, it's kind of like that, but it's really agent native. And so you can use it to set up automation workflows internally to make things more efficient. So just one quick example we do internally is we use it for our sales call. So anytime a sales call happens, the recording is sent into our workflow, it transcribes the call, it analyzes the call, and then it sends a slack message with insights. Here's what was discussed on the call. Here's interesting things for the product team to know. Here's what the sales team member could have done better. And we're using AI to automatically basically analyze and score calls.
- [21:57]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Awesome. Okay, so number one AI product, slang AI. Then we're going to follow it by N8N.
- [22:03]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, of course.
- [22:05]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Love that, Love that. Okay, I'm going to have to everyone check that out. N8N. I'd heard of it, but I have not tried it myself, so I'll have to do that. So our guests are very curious, which I mentioned earlier, if they want to. If a restaurant owner or manager wants to try out slang AI, get their hands dirty with it, what is the best way to do that?
- [22:30]
Alex Zamvani
So we have a website. You can find us on slang AI. You can request a demo there if you run a restaurant or you know someone that runs a restaurant if you want to test it out. As a consumer, we are live in, As I mentioned, 49 states. So if you call a restaurant in your market, you might be getting slang. We work with some great groups like Texas State, Brazil, Front Burner Society, which is the 60 Mines brand. Some of my Texans might know in New York we work with like quality, Italian, quality branded, Don Angie, many, many others catch hospitality groups. So lots of, lots of groups. So you know, we've, we've worked with thousands of restaurants across the US and so when you call a restaurant these days, you might be getting slang.
- [23:20]
Dr. Tamara Nall
That's amazing. I know. I have because I, I love, love, love, love a lot of the restaurants that you named and a lot of the hospitality group. So that's good there. Now let's move into bonus rapid fire. So I'm going to quickly ask you a question. You're going to quickly answer. First one up, what is the most overrated tech trend?
- [23:38]
Alex Zamvani
Overrated tech trend. I'm going to say crypto again.
- [23:42]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Okay.
- [23:43]
Alex Zamvani
But I just don't understand it. And it's probably my, like it's probably on my end, but I just can't wrap my head around it. I still feel like it was a bit. We had a huge crypto bubble that, that burst and you know, bitcoin seems to be surviving another coin. Seemed to be, but it seemed like it was overhyped for sure.
- [24:02]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Yeah. And it seems like we're going into a second phase of it for some reason. It does, yeah, it really, really does. I have my couple of hundred in my wallet, so.
- [24:12]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah, me too.
- [24:12]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Not enough.
- [24:13]
Alex Zamvani
I mean, don't get me wrong, I have a little bit, you know, a little bit, but not enough to get out of here. Yeah, exactly.
- [24:22]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Okay. Most under hyped AI trend.
- [24:26]
Alex Zamvani
Most under hyped AI trend. I'm a big fan of deep research. So deep research is a feature that's available in ChatGPT. Gemini has it, I'm sure others have it as well. But it's basically the ability to research a topic. So if there's something that you would maybe spend five to 10 hours researching, you can now have AI do it in five minutes. So whether it's like planning an in depth trip itinerary or if it's a learning a new industry for work or whatever it is like doing research on a potential client, it's really valuable for that and I think it's still very underutilized.
- [25:04]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Okay.
- [25:05]
Alex Zamvani
So I would check that out.
- [25:06]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Yeah, absolutely. A book you would recommend?
- [25:13]
Alex Zamvani
My favorite book for learn just thinking about the future and technology. Is the Innovator's Dilemma by Clay Christensen really the foundation of disruption theory? I think if folks haven't read it, that's a good one, right?
- [25:32]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Yeah, absolutely. Now tell us your biggest, your boldest prediction. Wow us.
- [25:37]
Alex Zamvani
Ooh. For me, my biggest, boldest prediction is that in 10 years we're going to have robots doing our laundry for us and cooking. Cooking in our kitchens. I look forward to that. Selfishly, I want that so, yes, yes.
- [25:57]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Selfishly, we all need it. Yes. It's interesting. I actually attended the World Robotics Conference in China and I was, like, really excited and I went there and a lot of it, I mean, it's. Don't get me wrong, it has advanced, but a lot of it is linear sequencing. So pick up this orange, put it in a bowl. But I'm with you, Alex. I'm ready for it to, like, do my laundry, wash the dishes, I don't know, go on a car ride with me, comb my hair. I'm ready for that.
- [26:28]
Alex Zamvani
Yeah.
- [26:30]
Dr. Tamara Nall
So. For sure. Well, I really. Alex, I have enjoyed this conversation and learning about slang AI. If we want to get in contact with you, if we want to learn more about slang AI, what are all your social media handles and what's the best way to connect?
- [26:45]
Alex Zamvani
Yes, of course. So my email is Alex slaying AI. My Twitter handle is at Samvani. Just my last name. You can also find me on LinkedIn.
- [26:55]
Dr. Tamara Nall
Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing and I love the fact that I experience slang AI on a weekly basis and I've enjoyed the conversation. Thanks for coming.
- [27:06]
Alex Zamvani
Thank you, Dr. T. Absolutely.
- [27:09]
Dr. Tamara Nall
And for everyone else, until next week, lead with AI.
- [27:15]
Thanks for tuning in to Lead with AI. I'll see you next time as we continue exploring the cutting edge innovations shaping AI across the public and private sectors. Until then, keep leading with AI.