Gizmobox May 2018 | Page 18

Technology

Niki - AI Chat Bot to Simplify Your Order Experience

rtificial Intelligence has been a

Arage , owing to its utility and advantages . Globally renowned companies have been incorporating AI into their systems , and aiming to tap newer audiences and attract more business . The hottest segment of this current trend is the market for conversational bots . From a customer point of view , it becomes really convenient to interact naturally with a bot , who can then get the work done for you in a smart way .

Keeping this in mind , the founding team at Niki . ai started working on a conversational agent named Niki who can help users shop . They firmly believe that adoption to a new and innovative technology comes when there is a significant utility of the product . Hence they decided to combine the potential of AI and conversations , with the utility of commerce .
Niki . ai was founded by four IIT Kharagpur alumni – Sachin Jaiswal , Nitin Babel , Shishir Modi and Keshav Prawasi . Keshav comes with a Computer Science background and has worked with Amazon for 4 years building architectures at scale . Shishir was the head of Strategic Initiatives at Indiareads , and Nitin has worked with Ipsos doing Marketing Analytics for Fortune 500 firms , before co-founding niki . ai . Sachin co-founded data analytics company Innovacer before Niki . ai which was preceded with a job at Oracle as a product manager .
Started in May 2015 , Niki envisions to become one shop for everything commerce . Niki is an AI bot who converses to help you shop for 20 + products and services and makes the whole journey from discovery to transaction fast , convenient and extremely simple . The services range from travel services like Hotel , Cab and Bus Booking , to Utility Bill Payments , to entertainment services like movie and events booking .
The team has always believed that artificial intelligence has the potential to redefine m-commerce globally , and they stuck to their mission in the initial stages . The founders put all their focus on building a value-providing product first , before they start to worry about funding . Once they had something to show for as a beta , they got good feedback from users and mentors alike . The company then raised seed round from Unilazer Ventures in October 2015 . Post which there was a follow up round in May 2016 by their existing investors Unilazer Ventures and Mr . Ratan Tata . The company feels proud that Mr . Tata backs their vision . The team is motivated to learn from his vast experience and knowledge about the industry and business .