Prepare for a dramatic shift in your expectations for Conversica.
The conversational AI firm has experienced significant change over the last year -- and that’ll come as a major boost to its sports clients.
This year, Conversica has gone through a leadership change, rebrand and development of a new roadmap for its platform (ditching a one-size-fits-all approach for an effort to make industry-specific products). And as Michael Gilson, the first-time CEO spearheading the change, tells it, there’s much more to come for its clientele, which includes approximately 100 in sports (such as Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the Red Sox, the Suns and Hendrick Motorsports).
“There were a number of things that really drove me to the company,” Gilson said Tuesday, “but the biggest one really was ... what I perceived as the opportunity to really focus and go deep into specific industry verticals.”
Here’s a quick rundown on how this affects sports.
Understanding the clients: Gilson has spent a significant amount of his time connecting with customers, and from the sports side, he sees an increased capability to support the growing tether between a team and its fans. Conversica’s AI agents have been deployed as an extension of fan marketing (like the use case covered here from our AI series from late 2023) to help acquires new customers or existing ones navigate their needs.
These early conversations also revealed a struggle for partners to scale in other areas. Gilson hinted at a sports-specific product coming to clients in Q4, and while he didn’t share specific details about that, he did elaborate on some of the ways Conversica can assist franchises.
“Being able to deliver on that 24/7, always-on personalized conversation that can have informed, intelligent conversations about suite rentals at a stadium or season passes, what have you,” Gilson said. “... we’ve invested heavily into that roadmap, but I would say there’s a lot more that we can do there.”
Hiring the right people: Gilson has also built a leadership group featuring mostly internal promotions, trying to foster a company culture of growth and opportunity. One external hire he did make was Kyle Pottinger, a longtime fixture on the team side (Suns, 76ers and Devils), as GM of Conversica’s sports and entertainment division. Drawing on his experience as a client, Pottinger will help develop solutions and best practices that can be shared with the broader customer base.
Pottinger shared that Conversica has started hosting monthly customer forums for that very reason, tapping into the sports industry’s camaraderie to help each other. “The analogy I keep using is teams don’t care so much how the engine works -- they just want to know that the car goes,” Pottinger said. “For us, it’s more sharing those tactical approaches that they can put into action and generate similar success off of.”
A (re)brand-new look: Another hearty task that Gilson took on quickly was a rebrand.
The Conversica logo now boasts a new tagline: “The Conversation Company.” Gilson sees it as an acknowledgement of the company’s new focus on empowerment for and collaboration with clients.
“It’s being able to tell the story through the lens of people that are operating in the industry, that have come from the industry,” Gilson said. “We know what challenges are present, and we know how to leverage technology to really address those key issues.”
