Tech for bootstrapped startups

What is your perspective of businesses established with sound business practices versus the feel that startups today are bereft of any sense of business fundamentals?

• Fantasy abandoned by reasonThis is the peak of the cycle. Where we see a lot of positivity and encouragement. On the positives, we see a lot of entrepreneurs being courageous and pursuing audacious ideas. But on the other hand, this is where we see the creation of impossible monsters and irrational exuberance. At around 2015-2017, the cycle was at its peak. We saw a lot of banks funding many startups, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses that weren’t sustainable.
• Fear abandoned by reasonThis is the trough of the cycle. Where we see a lot of pessimism and stagnancy. There’s not a lot of movement at this stage because of the fear. This is where the funded startups from the peak of the cycle are the ones who are laying people off. And where businesses get their reality checks and when they induce responsible behaviour. But while the reality check is the downside, there’s a light in realizing the importance of building a sustainable business.Smart investors are ones that recognize the cycle and embrace the positives. But are aware of the negative sentiments that each phase creates and therefore wary of them, thus investing wisely.

How can AI and tech be the game-changer for startups?

• Genuine and rapid progressThis is where technology is thriving, where we’re saying genuine and rapid progress. Examples could be facial recognition, a diagnosis from medical scans, speech-to-text, reverse image searching, etc. AI is making great strides and is impacting this area immensely.
• Partially imperfect and improvingThis is where the technology is imperfect but will continue to improve. Examples being spam detection, detection of hate speech, conversational AI, chatbots, etc.
• The fundamentally dubiousThis is the area that is completely flawed and dubious; there’s no scope in this area, according to Hari. and it’s not because of technology. It’s because these areas are fundamentally impossible to solve. Examples being predicting job success, or if a person will succeed in a job, predicting behaviours in general. It is impossible for technology to predict human behaviour, it’s fundamentally dubious.

Do you think Conversational AI can be a critical customer support tool in the e-commerce industry?